Hello all,

OK so the P38 had its biggest outing soo far from South Wales to Spa Francorchamps and back towing a 2 tonne caravan all the way out and back in three days. Poor girl had to work a bit hard on the hills in the heat but plodded along at a healthy ish 16mpg.

Now when we pulled up in the lanes for the ferry the key turned, the engine started then immediately stalled. I was able to get it going by applying some revs for a few seconds. It did this once more on the journey home but not every time I started it. Could this be that the start idle is set too low. Looked about 500rpm.

Was a good reminder to get the air conditioning fixed!

If I recall correctly, gems in neutral should tick over 750-800, as Thor’s 650-700,
I doubt it’s anything set in the ecu, could of just been heat related,

That was my thought. Will see if it behaves now I'm back before it does the same trip in July and a smaller trip in June.

Might also be something a simple as the idle control valve needing a clean, as they do sometimes gum up and stick.

+1 on the idle control valve. That's what controls the idle speed so if it is a bit sticky it doesn't open fast enough to get the revs up. Simple enough to pull it out and give it a good clean with carb cleaner.

Cheers will look into it tomorrow,

Started fine for the trip out this afternoon but expect something is wrong.

My mates were amazed to see a 20 year old P38 do 480 miles non stop towing then spend 3 days parked in a field followed by another 480 miles back. She isn't as quick as my Audi A6 3.0TDI but not much on worse on fuel and does tow more stable.

They are absolutely brilliant for towing and as for long journeys, the longest I've done in one hit was 1,350 miles from Calais to my partners parent's house in Latvia. Two drivers, only stopping to refuel the car and ourselves. That wasn't with a trailer though but I regularly do Calais to Nice with a loaded car transporter on the back. Doing the Belgium/Luxembourg border area this weekend but that's only a couple of hundred miles from getting off the ferry but towing an Ifor Williams BV126G box trailer (5m long, 2m wide and 2.5m high) to Nice in a couple of weeks time which is the closest I get to a caravan. Considering mine's now up to 355,000 miles, the old girl isn't doing too bad.

What you describe is exactly what mine does with the MAF unplugged. It'll start, then cutout, once maybe twice, then start with a bit of help from the throttle and eventually settle to a low idle and otherwise drive fine.

Have you got a fault code reader? These cars seem to never bring the EML on, so there could be faults lurking.