Technical Car with a mind of its own

[deewatt8]

My Fiat Stilo JTD has got a mind of its own. It drives on its own without my foot on the accerlator and the revvs are nearly of the guage.

It can drive like this for a day and then you think the problem has gone for a few days and then it happens again. When it is like this it reads Engine Failure.

A new fuel filter has been fitted but this does not seem to have helped the problem.

Has anyone ever experienced this before.

Please help.

 

[Argonought]

I'd get it looked at if I was you before you say goodbye to the engine.

Most likely throttle potentiometer (or connection problem) I'd think

 

[Greggers]

It might be worth investing in a simple OBD code reader if your car is OBD compliant as it'll tell you whats going wrong... if it's pre 2004 though (I think) then it won't be OBD compliant and I'm afraid you'll need to get it diagnosed at a garage asap. The problem won't go away so it's just not worth damaging your engine.

Good luck with it!

 

[john55]

Is it smoking a lot when it revs? Usually Diesels only rev like that if they are running on oil (Engine oil leaking into the inlet somewhere) instead of diesel coming via the injectors.

 

[deewatt8]

Don't laugh (I am a woman) but I have noticed that the car only does this when the lights are on, could it be electrical. There is no smoke coming from it.

I know it sounds crazy.

 

[tenwierdufos]

Yeah definatly sounds like an electrical fault more than a mechanical one, need to be sorted before it becomes a mechanical one from being worked too hard though!

Have any electrical modifications been made to it that could be causing some interfearance?

 

[ChrisMClark]

And has it got wet anywhere?