Engine manners at low speed

[oj_box]

Hi- my 986 Boxster isn't very smooth at low speeds. I know these cars like to be revved a bit and don't like driving at low rpm - but the car will kangaroo like it wants to stall if I accelerate hard in first gear to 2k rpm and then back off. Is it normal?

 

[Motorhead]

That doesn’t sound right to me Daniel. Assuming you have a manual transmission rather than Tiptronic (who knows what could happen with that in the loop?) and an electronic throttle then it could be a faulty throttle position sensor or sticking throttle body motor, or maybe there’s a fuelling problem? If your car has a cable operated throttle then it could be a sticking cable or malfunctioning throttle butterfly.

As always the most efficient course of action is to run a diagnostic check using PIWIS or equivalent to see if there are any error codes flagged-up.

Jeff

 

[oj_box]

Thank you very much, Jeff!

It's a 1999 car with a cable throttle. The car is inclined to stall very easily (at first I assumed user error, but now I believe I'm not entirely to blame!). My thoughts on reading various previous posts pointed to the Idle Stabilisation Value - so your comment re the throttle body makes sense.

 

[Motorhead]

Yes, the idle control valve could well be culprit Daniel. Although cheap replacements may be available online they’ll most likely be Chinese copies of the genuine (and expensive?) Bosch part, so it’s a case of buyer beware if you plan to take that route. Maybe you can source a used part?

Jeff