I'm having trouble pulling off.

[steve1001]

Here's the problem.

306 HDI 230,000miles

I stop at a roundabout.When I can go, I dip the clutch pedal, put it into gear, give it some gas, and lift up the clutch pedal.
The car starts to move forwards, but just as I'm lifting my foot right off the clutch pedal, the engine starts to die, and the car lurches and slows right down. I'm in first gear now, and slowly the revs build up again and it starts to pull away as normal, albeit very slowly. 
Sometimes the engine dies and the car lurches as I am just getting into 2nd, and again the revs build up very slowly .


The car pulls fine in 3rd, 4th and 5th. If I am in 5th, I can dip the clutch pedal, give it some gas, lift up the clutch pedal  and the car picks up ok. If I am in 3rd or 4th and floor the gas pedal, the car picks up and accelerates without problem. It does not feel like the clutch is slipping, but seeing as this condition is new to me I can't be 100% sure. The clutch cable is original and has been stiff and 'notchy' for the last 150,000 miles.

Is this condition familiar to anyone?

Thanks for reading.

Steve

[DeeTurbo]

I had a similar issue when the speedo died, it was the speed sensor on the gearbox. I take it your speedo is working fine?

Your issue might be the clutch switch. Check it on a diag tool or multimeter on the switch.

[Eeyore]

sounds strange I wouldnt expect it to be the cable as once the clutch is engaged its engaged. If it was slipping it should slip at max torque in all the higher gears. I suspect it may be a sensor somewhere. Try replugging everything and check the MAF? Disconnect the MAF, go for a drive and see if it changes anything.

[steve1001]

DeeTurbo
The speedo has been playing up for about 3 years now. When the engine gets up to temperature (about 70c), the speedo drops to 0 and the engine loses a little bit of power.  After that the speedo comes and goes at random. The power loss I am getting at the moment is much more than the power loss that occurs whenever the speedo drops out.
I did not know there was a clutch switch. I'll test that tomorrow.


Eeyore
I will mess about with the MAF tomorrow. I had a front end smash last month and installed a MAF from a newer 306 while I was fiddling around getting the front end back in order. I'll disconnect it and see what happens, and maybe put the old one back and see if that affects anything.

Good call guys, thanks. Any other suggestions are welcome.

Steve

[FuST]

I've got a similar speedo issue but only when it's cold and/or wet, but I agree that shouldn't cause (nearly)stalling the engine. (If anyone has a suggestion on what might cause the speedo issue, i'd like to hear)

Most probably it's a sensor related issue so I agree with DeeTurbo and Eeyore on the most likely culprit being the clutch or MAF sensor.
Can you hook up a PP2000 to check some readings with different MAFs?

[Poodle]

The speedo dipping out will cause power loss which will feel a lot like a stall. Its a relatively common fault on these, often due to corroded earth straps behind the dash, worth a check since it's free to fix.

That said it does sound like your issue is more likely clutch switch.

Edit: disappointed nobody has suggested redtube in response to the thread title. Where oh where have all the trolls gone

[pug306driver]

Earth straps behind the dash, where abouts please ?

[Magenta Sunset]

The speedo dipping out will cause power loss which will feel a lot like a stall. Its a relatively common fault on these, often due to corroded earth straps behind the dash, worth a check since it's free to fix.

That said it does sound like your issue is more likely clutch switch.

Edit: disappointed nobody has suggested redtube in response to the thread title. Where oh where have all the trolls gone

I had thought about it. but decided someone was seeking a grown up answer.

[Poodle]

Iirc there's one in the corner of both footwells.

[steve1001]

I have a update for this problem. 

Sorry to take so long to report back. 


I've had quite few near misses at junctions and roundabouts, caused by the engine revs dropping to virtually nil and leaving me stationary in the middle of the road in the face of oncoming traffic. Time to deal with it.


I fitted a good known used MAF, but that did not change things.

I fitted a good known throttle position sensor assembly (sensor and the thing the end of the throttle cable is fixed to). That did not change things either.

I notice the harness was vibrating all over the place, so I suspected loose wiring at the sensor plug. I sprayed WD40 over the sensor plug, yanked the wires about a bit and that cured the problem for a day or two. The plug was nice and clean without any corrosion and the wires seemed good.  

I repositioned the wiring harness and used tie wraps to secure the harness to the sensor body. That had an adverse affect. Instead of idling  at the normal  800ish rpm, the idle speed went up to wopping 1200rpm! Crikey. I undid the tie wraps straight away and things went back to normal. 

So, now I was thinking broken wires. 

Starting at the sensor plug, I removed the sheathing and exposed the wires. I worked my way back to the main loom and eventually found the white wire had broken where it exits the main loom. The metal core wire had broke, and the plastic casing was holding the wire together, given an intermediate signal.
So, I used a crimped in-line connector to repair the break, re-wrapped the wires using amalgamating tape, took it for a test drive and all was good. Problem solved! Happy days.

Thanks for you all your advice.

Steve

PS: yeah, I was thinking xnxx.com and xvideos.com when thinking up the title. But redtube is good (so I'm told).

---

Here are some dirty blurry pictures.

[Uberderv]

Wow good find well done

[pug306driver]

good find, continual "bending/vibration" causes wires to break, a devil to find sometimes.

[old306man]

Hi I had the exact same fault about 5 years now. That loom is exposed to the weather somewhat too,heat and cold no wonder wires break with it vibrating and moving around like it does.
Very dangerous fault at crossing dual carriageways etc if the car slows right down like that when you are trying to accelerate. I took to a garage who were not very helpful apart from putting it on the laptop to give me that. In the end I bought my own OBD II. OBD was giving TPS error. Tested the TPS with a meter it didn't seem to be that. Routed around and I found that exact same broken white wire I think too. I soldered mine back together. Did not put amalgamating tape on just normal. All good... until...

Fast forward to 2020 I now have a non start fault when I tried to start it last night after xmas hols and the ODB 2 is giving me fault codes P0403 EGR Control circuit and P0510. : -Closed Throttle Position Switch. Are they related to the non start? The engine turns and fires for a second then cuts off. If you crank it again, it won't fire at all. If you wait 5 mins then it will fire but again cuts off... then its back to starter cranking. Battery is newish and sound and on charge anyway.

I remember that loom was a very brittle thing so its possible that more wires have broken. Anyone think this could be causing my non start problems>? I have run out of light today and it's been heavy wind raining most of the day here. I can't even remember how to get the TPS plug unplugged. Worried about breaking it can anyone help at all? I do remember I had to disconnect and move at least the the air filter box to get access to the loom. I'm stuck in Ireland on holiday in the middle of nowhere and I'm 45 mins walk from any shop or garage. Fuel starvation if not the loom? Or the tank pump is weak? I replaced that with a brand new one in about 2007 when it cut out on the M1! Any help I'd be most thankful for.

[pug306driver]

Yep, remembering how to defeat the terminal clips is a problem, but pictures and a note book are good.

The throttle pedal position sensor, the one nutted to the air box with 2 6mm nuts, has a black plug from the loom. There are 2 clips to defeat, either press in or gently ( very gently as the black is old and brittle now ) prise out a bit so the clip hook is defeated, then pull off the terminal via the body, not the wires.

I assume winter diesel?

Yep it rains a lot here to but is dry at the moment. Wrap up warm and take "warm up" breaks........

Did you get the car back to blighty?