Can anyone shed some light on what might have caused this?

Yesterday I went out for a run in the mountains in the Valais (Switzerland) with a bunch of other scooby drivers and guys in Opel Speedsters. We went up to Verbier and then took the single track dirt road up to the very top of the mountain. When we got up to the top, I was last in the queue and ended up on a steep little incline. When the folks in front moved off, I tried to go up the incline - the result? The engine stalled on me. So I tried again, start the engine, put my right foot to the metal, lift off the clutch...no joy, the engine just gave up. I reckoned that I should just back down the mountain a little bit (!!!) to get off the incline so I tried that and it still wouldn't get power to the engine. So I start to reverse (without the engine running) further down the mountain. The single dirt track is slippery from the morning's rain and there is no protective barrier...and it's a LONG way down. By this time there is pandemonium in the car - wife's in a panic, kids are getting really scared, I'm starting to get panicky myself, so I carefully and slowly reach a small flat part, put the car in first and this time the engine starts okay and I can finally get up the incline once I've got a bit of speed up (about 20km/h).

So what happened? I've done hill starts before but never when there was no power getting through - torque was simply non-existent. When I put my foot to the metal there was absolutely no reaction. As I said the track was slippery but no-one else seemed to have a problem - probably because they didn't stop on that part - and my tyres weren't spinning. The fuel meter was down into the last quarter but even so, this shouldn't have made a difference should it?

Apart from this very shaky moment, the day out was great fun but this really has me worried as it's not the first time I've noticed limp power low down.

Car details: standard STi7 with a Supersprint backbox. Aircon was definitely off at the time.

 

No ideas ?

 

could it be youve answered your own question..

to have a suitable combustion ratio ie the stochiometric ratio

you need a set amount of fuel / air..

in the mountains the air is rare ... and prhaps your stop & restart upset the

ecu,

not sure if the scoob has a map sensor, it could well be this is defective

Mart

 

Could be partly down to lack of air at altitude, but my guess, and it is a guess, is fuel starvation due to steep incline and low fuel!
Fill the tank, leave the family at home and go up there again!
Any excuse!

 

Thanks guys. Everything seems okay today with the car but that was a real disturbing experience...and it wasn't THAT steep an incline...just a bit high up with no barrier and a long, long way down if things didn't go right.

The Verbier "station" is at 1531 metres high and after that we took the track on up the mountain so maybe at 1750 metres (?) the air is a bit thin...pucker factor 8.5 I reckon. Pictures from our outing are here: Lots of pics - the last of the images show us up the mountain.

 

Fuel starvation because the pick up is above the fuel level in the tank seems the likely cause, but since you later made it up the incline that would imply not, unless it was a very short slope and you ran on the fuel that was in the pipes between the tank and the engine (dodgy).

I don't know where the pick up is in the tank. Perhaps reversing up would give a clue? Anyone with a steep drive would surely suffer this kind of thing fairly regularly?

Another possibility is an air lock as bubbles in the system expand due to reduced pressure at altitude, but would have thought the climb was slow enough for them to disperse.

 

As per SpeedKing , Fuel Starvation, as for the altitude, if that was the issue all the others would of suffered also

Dean

 

At easter I came from Andorra to Spain via the Pyrenees (speeling Doh!) and we went up to 2500 metres if I remember right at the highest point... the scoob was fine with the alititude..... just a thought!

 

BTW never a good idea to coast down a steep incline backwards in neutral. ALWAYS keep it in reverse and use the brakes. No wonder the family were screaming!!

 

Not easy if the engine won't run Effectively bump starting the car multiple times in reverse wouldn't do it any good.

 

True enough, but IF you do have power then the advice stands.