As mentioned at my last trip to the smartcars garage, it still had a few issues with cold starts. I was hoping that it would get better, and that it only was coke deposits, that needed to be burnt clean, after they fixed the other issue I had with it regularly going into limp mode.
I haven’t experienced it going into limp mode since the last trip to Smartcars, but as the weather has become colder, the starting issues have become worse.
The other day it started, but had a very low idle, and did not react when I activated the accelerator.
I turned it off, and at my second attempt it started as it should.
Unfortunately it only lasted two days, before it did it again. This time it wouldn’t start normally.
It starts, bud idles at just over 500 rpm, and there is zero speeder response.
More strange however is that the amber engine light is on, but the OBDII reader can see all the live data (eg. the RPM), but it shows the green “All OK” checkmark, and receives zero error codes.
I don’t blame Smartcars.dk for anything. They found another error, that clearly fixed the limp mode issue, and the car started exemplary while at the garage. I’d prefer an extra trip or two to the garage anytime, compared to a mechanic that swaps parts that don’t need swapping, just to be sure.
I suspected that the glow plugs needed to be replaced before this no response low idle issue appeared.
I can read on the “Interwebs” that I’m far from the first to experience this, and I’m curious to its cause.
Bad speeder potentiometer?
The Smart fortwo was picked up by the emergency service, and transported to the garage. I’m looking forward to getting it back.
I’m still not a fan of driving the Peugeot. It’s sooooo boring to commute in, compared to my Smartcar.
Update – I’ve got my Smart back from Smartcars.dk
Smartcars.dk ran into the same problem as I did, with the computer not registering any issues.
They expected the issue could be either a temperature sensor, or one of the Diesel injectors. If it was one or more glow-plugs, there would have been a error in the OBDII reader.
We agreed that they changed the temperature sensor, and let it stand until the next morning to see if would help.
Unfortunately it still wouldn’t start the next morning.
I agreed to try cleaning the injectors on their Injection Cleaning Machine.
This cleans the injectors while they sit in the car. They don’t use the Bardahl Injection Cleaning Machine shown in the video below, but I expect it’s the same process.
The result was an improvement, but not a perfect cure.
The car still wouldn’t start perfectly, but it started on the first attempt.
Smartcars.dk told me that the issue could be a tiny leak in one of the diesel injectors, that meant that it lost pressure at the first start.
I must admit that it runs perfectly, and when it has been started once, it starts with no issues, until it has been parked for a few hours.
Unfortunately the garage doesn’t have speciality diesel injector equipment, so the next step was sending the injectors to a specialist, or exchanging them with renovated injectors.
I’m not interested in waiting a week, for shipping injectors, or paying the high cost of renovated examples without knowing if they really are the cause to my problems.
I have now been running for a week after the repair, and I must admit that cleaning the injectors has been worth the while (unless I later find out that all 3 need replacement), as it runs more smooth and the odour from the exhaust is almost gone, when driving below 50km/h with the top down.
At the same time, it still doesn’t start as it should, but it starts on the first attempt, every time. And It hasn’t pulled the unresponsive low RPM trick on me, since the cleaning.
Have you experienced something similar with your Smart?
If so, what solved it for you?
Leave a Reply