Afm Problems?

[scottbarton 34 1 Cars]

Driving to work this morning the car started to feel a tad sluggish, was doing around 60 on a motorway, dipped the clutch and the car stalled straight away. I lifted off the clutch to 'bump' start her and she sprung back into life but with same sluggish symptoms. Also noted smoke coming from the exhaust..

I pulled off the motorway and coasted to a stop, and she would not start again. I check the obvious, plugs, leads, dizzy etc etc....but no joy.

 

So I call out the AA and he proves that there is a spark, and there is fuel. It's when he opened up the AFM and pointed out the flap was stuck open? He poked it and it slammed shut....car then started no problems.

Does this sound a probable cause? If so, what can I do to prevent it from happening again?

 

Most impressed with the AA man, he was very enthusiastic about the car, and demonstrated good knowledge after stating he used to work on them years ago!

[Anthony 1,003]

Yes I've seen the flap stick open before, and it will completely mess up the fuelling.

 

Sometimes the AFM is goosed, other times it's just muck that's stopping the flap from moving properly and a good clean will fix it.

[scottbarton 34 1 Cars]

Cheers Anthony. I drove her back home for around 20 miles no problems so hopefully once I give it a bit of a clean it will be ok. I do have a couple of second hand spares, but am pretty sure you can't simply swop them over as they need setting up. Is that correct?

[Anthony 1,003]

Well, you should be able to swap them over and it'll run fine, just the idle mixture might need a tweak.

 

I say "should" as inevitably due to the combination of age and people fiddling with them, two AFM's that are identical on the face of it will potentially behave/fuel quite differently. Very much a case of trying them and seeing really.

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

Mine stuck open a few years back on my 1.6. After I closed it It never had the problem again and It's still fine now.