General 500 Lounge stop / start wierdness!!

[Dizzydeb]

Hello All

Be kind, this is my first post and total newbie to this forum.

Have had my 500 1.2 Lounge since last Oct. Had some problems with the stop/start over winter months but put that down to lots of use with heater being on etc... but once weather got better and no improvement took it back to the garage. They had a look at it and told me it was a problem with the alternator and changed it.. that was about 6 weeks ago.


Had less problems but still getting the triangle warming light come on ( on reversing sometimes) and other times out the blue.

Its going back to the garage on monday for another check.

Today while driving around I pulled up at some traffic lights, stop/start worked fine... went to pull away and the car seem to cut-out and go back into stop/start mode. This happened a 3 times before the engine started working properly. I had this happen a couple of months ago and though I had done something wrong but wierd it happened again today. Is it me ?? do you think or anyone else had this problem?

I love little car and have wanted a 500 for years but this stop/start on it is really putting me off.

Any thoughts please? am I just being a rubbish driver or do you think there is a problem with my car?

As said its off to garage again on monday and want to go armed with info if it is faulty. Thanks all appreciate your advice. xx

 

[UFI]

As a driver used to cars with 'torque', and being mechanically sympathetic I try to slip the clutch as little as possible, I found the TA engine very easy to stall at first. I mean it will even stall when it's rolling

The 1.2 I imagine isn't as bad, but it does sound like you're just stalling it. When this happens the S/S kicks back in after a second and restarts for you. You might also be letting the clutch out a moment before the engine has fully restarted, this can lead to repeated stalls as the panic to get moving sets in.

If you really think S/S is shutting the engine off, try switching it off to see if that helps.

 

[EmmaC]

My 1.2 Pop has had endless problems with stop/start too. I noticed that it only happened when I was using clutch control instead of my brake at traffic lights/ slow traffic etc- it would say stop/start unavailable, triangle light would come on and I'd have to restart my engine. I looked on forums and they said that when you overuse the clutch (using clutch control) it causes the car to think there is a problem with the clutch so it cuts off the stop/start. Could it be this?

I just turn my stop/start off now and drive without it.

 

[scout]

My 1.2 Pop has had endless problems with stop/start too. I noticed that it only happened when I was using clutch control instead of my brake at traffic lights/ slow traffic etc- it would say stop/start unavailable, triangle light would come on and I'd have to restart my engine. I looked on forums and they said that when you overuse the clutch (using clutch control) it causes the car to think there is a problem with the clutch so it cuts off the stop/start. Could it be this?

I just turn my stop/start off now and drive without it.

If you carry on riding the clutch at lights you will burn it out and a new one is expensive - I may be reading this post wrong but thats how it sounds

 

[EmmaC]

If you carry on riding the clutch at lights you will burn it out and a new one is expensive - I may be reading this post wrong but thats how it sounds

I don't drive like that any more since I realised what it was doing! I was just used to driving like that with my old banger before my 500!

 

[scout]

I don't drive like that any more since I realised what it was doing! I was just used to driving like that with my old banger before my 500!

Phew , at least you learnt from your experience, I know people who are in their 60's that still slip/ride the clutch all the time. They can't understand why their cars have to have clutches when their friends have never needed one.