Hi all,

Driving to work this morning in the trusty X type 3.0 manual, the fuel light illuminated as it often does! This time however, about 5 seconds later, I received an orange light, a red light, and a warning on the screen that there was an engine fault.
I pulled over and left the car idling while I tried to figure out what all the fuss was about. On stopping, the idle speed rose to 1500rpm and the throttle pedal became unresponsive. Thinking it may be something to do with low fuel(the car showed 25 miles range at this point) I swung the car round and headed to the nearest fuel station. I travelled around 2 miles back to the fuel station on this idle speed, managing to get up to 35 mph going through the gears up into 5th gear. All the time the throttle pedal had no affect on the engine speed. I fuelled the car and restarted. The car returned to perfect working order again and has not missed a beat since.

I have since scanned the car with the Torque Pro app and received no codes although I realise that this App is not exhaustive and doesn't pick up all fault codes. One thing I did notice while I was travelling back the buy fuel was the engine did sound very lumpy as if it was running on less than the usual 6 cylinders.

Can anyone shed any light on this very odd behaviour?

 

Bwant, I think the low fuel light and what you experienced were coincidental and not related. From what you describe, it sounds as if the throttlebody suffered a problem and that caused the car to not be able to control the throttlebody (hence the no control with the gas pedal). This could also possibly result in the lumpy engine as the car uses the throttlebody to control the idle and if it is a little too low, it will cause the engine to run a little rough.

Before you do too much, I would say to do a cleaning of the throttle body and see how dirty it may be. When you do this, make sure to wipe the edges of the butterfly valve (the silver disk in the throttle body). Throttle bodies will get a fair amount of build up on the edge and can lead to sticking. If you happen to flood out the car as you are cleaning, do not fret. When you go to start the car, floor the car (gas pedal down as far as it will go) and then start the car. As you hear it start to catch as it is clearing the flood condition, you can ease off of the gas and bring it up to idle. I know it sounds backwards, but this car is designed to not engage the fuel injectors when it sees the throttle full open on start up.

 

Hi Thermo,

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I will take a look into the throttle body tomorrow and give it a clean out.
The reason I assumed the low fuel was related to the problem was I'm almost certain I've read somewhere there is a fuel transfer within the fuel tank when the level is low. As you say it could be coincidental. Typically, I can't find the piece regarding what happens in the fuel tank now I need it. Have you any information on this?

Many thanks

 

The "saddle bag" gas tank (petrol/gas) has a true fuel pump on the right side. There are "pipes" running to the left side with a "sending unit". As the right side true pump, pumps fuel, there is a "venturi" effect that attempts to keep the fuel level on each side of the tank even for weight distribution. When the left side is depleted, the "sending unit" shuts down suction through the left side pipes and illuminates low fuel light/warning. Because the right side is deeper (reserve), the true pump utilizes that side until empty.

 

and MAF. I always clean them.

 

Related or not, I never run my tank that low on fuel.

 

Well, now that my X fuel pump is on the way out I don’t either. I am nursing it until I get around to replacing it

as far as the OP, I think his problem is the throttle body. I cleaned, and tried to fit a new TPS, but ultimately the solution was a new OEM throttle body.

 

Thanks for the reply everyone. I haven't had a chance to inspect and clean the throttle body today. Maybe tomorrow I will get the time. I have covered around 50 miles in the X Type today and it's behaved impeccably.

Out of interest, what are the symptoms of a failing fuel pump on these cars?

 

Intermittently non start, dying, power when driving, low fuel pressure

 

Bwant, when the fuel pump starts to go, what you will notice is that the car seems to take longer and longer to crank before it catches. To fix this, you simply roll the key to the RUN position (NOT!!!! the START), wait a few seconds, and then roll it to START. If you notice that the car starts much faster this way, your fuel pump is on its way out. Granted, I have also found that a weak battery can cause the car to be slow to start and take many more cranks, but doing what I said above will not make the motor start right away.

If you want to know how to see what the car is seeing as fuel pressure, let me know. There is a way to pull it up on your instrument cluster.

 

I had a similar issue (no throttle response, 1500rpm and red light) with my 2002 2.5i x-type and it was the APP (pedal position sensor)
Got a replacement one off ebay for £10 and was only 3 bolts to change - just remember to reset the ecu afterwards!

 

What code did you have then? (The OP has no codes.)

 

P1344 APP Sensor sense circuits APP1 and APP2 range / performance but it did take a couple of engine starts with the fault to set the code.