P38A Nothing is too good for my car...or is it ?

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Pression de Gonflage

Well-Known Member
P38A , 1998, 4.0, LPG + PETROL.

Good afternoon, good people.

One often reads of folk who have put diesel in the petrol tank and vice versa and I suspect that most of us have thought, I’d never do anything so daft. Ho hum.

No, I have NOT put diesel in my tank, but I wonder if I what have done is almost as bad.

Most of the time I use LPG. However, this requires a small quantity of petrol to start the engine. It then switches over to LPG after a few minutes. So I only need to fill the petrol tank every month or two. For various reasons I have not been able to get to my nearest LPG shop so have topped up with petrol. In my ignorance I thought, ok E10 is simply a slightly better fuel and only a few pence different in price, and of course I don't want to put the cheap stuff in my wondrous V8 do I ?.

I have only just been reading in the UK press of the popularity (?) of E10 petrol, which I understand is a mixture of proper petrol and gin. Unfortunately, here in France where most of my friends and neighbours run on diesel, it has not had the same coverage or even discussion.

Now comes the problem. When I start up, the engine immediately runs up to almost 2000rpm, instead of its normal 682.5rpm. In the old days, this would have been immediately diagnosed as a sticky throttle cable, and easily fixed. Today it’s not so easy. The curious part is that the engine still settles down to its normal idle at about the time when it normally switches over to gas. Is this E10 stuff the cause of the problem and have I done irreparable damage, or is this just a coincidence ?

A couple of days ago with petrol getting low I topped up with the “old” stuff, in the hope that with the now small percentage in the mix things would not be so serious. However, the start-up high revs are still there.

Tell me the worst…someone.....er...please.
 
Have you also taken in to account it’s colder in the mornings now, I thought the gems would be up higher than normal idle for a while when cold
Can’t remember the numbers;)

but no e10 not the issue.

J
 
Thanks for the quick reply. My (flawed ?) logic suggested that this petrol and alcohol mix might have damaged a seal or something fragile somewhere. I should have mentioned that the little green machine, to the left, which is running on the same fuel, from the same source,started running rough at the same time. Different symptoms admittedly, but coincidence ?

I don't have a code reader that would tell me about idle air control valves (I even had to look up IAVC !). Are there any means of diagnosing if it is working ? Is it a repairable or serviceable item ? Not immediately sure what it looks like or precisely where to find it. Will I find it by simple observation ?
 
Have you also taken in to account it’s colder in the mornings now, I thought the gems would be up higher than normal idle for a while when cold
Can’t remember the numbers;)

but no e10 not the issue.

J

Thank you for joining in my particular fray. I take your point about colder mornings, although here it is not yet dropping below about 16° inside the barn or outside. Having said that, even if I occasionally leave the car our in snow overnight, I never seems to notice.

I am reassured that by mistake with the e10 is not the cause.and so I remain hopeful that no other damage will have been caused. Not sure what to do with a 20 litre jerrycan of e10 though. Can't even give it away, as all my friends and neighbours drive oil-burners. Would it be safe feed it into a tankful of Ordinary, little by little ?
 
Thank you for joining in my particular fray. I take your point about colder mornings, although here it is not yet dropping below about 16° inside the barn or outside. Having said that, even if I occasionally leave the car our in snow overnight, I never seems to notice.

I am reassured that by mistake with the e10 is not the cause.and so I remain hopeful that no other damage will have been caused. Not sure what to do with a 20 litre jerrycan of e10 though. Can't even give it away, as all my friends and neighbours drive oil-burners. Would it be safe feed it into a tankful of Ordinary, little by little ?

yes mix it no issue.
You say you mostly run LPG, our V8 on LPG (long ago car) used to run mainly LPG but after a while it preferred to be run on petrol for a tank.

J
 
yes mix it no issue.
You say you mostly run LPG, our V8 on LPG (long ago car) used to run mainly LPG but after a while it preferred to be run on petrol for a tank.

J
Apart from, the present problem, mine doesn't seem to register any difference whether running on LPG or petrol. I prefer it because of the not insignificant cost saving and the Republic of France loves it so much that they have given me CritAir sticker that allows me to drive in central Paris and other major cities at any time of the week !
 
Apart from, the present problem, mine doesn't seem to register any difference whether running on LPG or petrol. I prefer it because of the not insignificant cost saving and the Republic of France loves it so much that they have given me CritAir sticker that allows me to drive in central Paris and other major cities at any time of the week !

The sticker doesn’t know what fuel your burning:p:p.

J
 
the more ethanol in the fuel the more hygroscopic it becomes, that's why when you watch youtubers who fix garden machinery have lots of work in spring, after the fuels sat for 4 months absorbing water then corroding gumming up the carbs. in regular use it shouldn't be noticeable from any other type of petrol, especially in the relatively low compression rover engine.
I'd give the throttle body and IACV a clean as a simple cheap easy first step, when cleaning the IACV, RAVE says don't push the plunger in by hand when cleaning it.
 
A loose or slack vacuum pipe on the manifold can cause high idle on start up ,,,,can you hear a sucking air sound from any of the cruse control pipes or small pipes on the engine .......

Funnily enough, sorting out the cruise control, or lack thereof, was going to be my next project. It has been out of commission for a while, but I've barely missed it, so it never got to the top of the list. I had wondered if the problem was electrical or plumbing, so as I cannot detect and sucking sounds, it seems that the former is more likely. I will see if I can detect any other sucking sounds. Thank you for the input.
 
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