Auto Choke

[Steve]

question for you techies who know about old type carbs (i know it aint Lex related... but i know we have some knowledgable fellas here)

Today I was driving an old 3 Generation Honda Prelude... I stopped at the services for 5 mins.. came back and the car would not start.. the car was flooding so would not start at all.

10 mins later the RAC turn up and the bloke gets in the car and it starts ... typical (like going to the doctors when your ill.. only find yourself much better in the waiting room)

The RAC guy reckons it was the Auto Choke

So....Here is my question

Was the Auto Choke causing the car to flood even though the engine was warm... would this be the cause as the car starts fine when cold.

[phunt]

It sounds like the choke is stuck closed therefor letting through a richer mixture which is wat is needed for a colder start but once the engine gets warmed up the mixture will be too rich hence the flooding.

[Steve]

seems to start a dream when cold...

[Risky3301]

seems to start a dream when cold...

If the auto choke butterfly is stuck 'closed', it will start fine when cold and if it remains closed with the engine hot, mixture (fuel and Air) will be to rich and this will cause you problems with a hot engine.

[Steve]

do you think it will be a hard job to fix? would it need a replaceable part?

[phunt]

seems to start a dream when cold...

If the auto choke butterfly is stuck 'closed', it will start fine when cold and if it remains closed with the engine hot, mixture (fuel and Air) will be to rich and this will cause you problems with a hot engine.

DEJA VU

[Risky3301]

do you think it will be a hard job to fix? would it need a replaceable part?

I don't know as I never had a Honda carb apart or looked at the mech contoling the choke, the first thing I would check to see if you are getting black smoke out of the exhaust when the engine is hot, if you do have black smoke then it might be worth removeing the air cleaner from the carb and see how the choke is controled, some use coolant direct to a choke housing on the carb, some use vac control sensors in the cooling system that control the coke. It might just be that you were a little to heavy on throttle when trying to restart the engine,

Hot carb engines don't like the throttle pressed.

[phunt]

do you think it will be a hard job to fix? would it need a replaceable part?

Dunno about the prelude steve but the auto choke ive had experiance with was controlled by the cooling system.when the engine reaches optimum temerature the thermostat opens therefor allowing water to pass through the choke casing causing a thermospring to open the choke butterfly.It maybe that the actual cooling system thermostat is defective and your choke is getting no feed.but then again i maybe completly wrong lol.either way your best bet maybe to get a manual choke conversion kit,thats wat i ended up doing.does the engine overheat at all?

[Steve]

doesnt overheat at all... or run fast

when i started it earlier in the day I did notice the small puff of black smoke. The engine was warmish and tooka few turns to get her started.

Just after a motorway trip the car decided to play up when i returned to the car.

[ColinBarber]

If you have the same problem again try starting the car with the throttle fully open. Don't move it as that just squirts in more fuel. Should start to fire up after a few turns.