Club 80-90 Forums

Why is there a choke under the steering wheel ? I pulled it out and nada!

Its the cold start , you really shouldnt need it unless it drops well below -5 ish

Pop the lid and make sure its working , it goes to the pump , check its both coming on and more importantly going off

Cold start...a-ha!! Thanks fella, i'll be popping my lid any minute now.

I wondered the same thing. Its not a choke - the lever just advances the ignition to help start on cold days.

I was using mine after one of my glow plugs died, wondering why it was smoking so much at start-up. Fitted a set of new glow plugs and didn't need it again for 12 months; started first click until following winter, when a plug died again!

You are lucky
Those things tend to be like hens teeth and dont appear that often
Thankfully I found one and have fitted it
So now I can start the old girl when its blo*dy cold

On a these really fast and powerful engines such as the CS or in my case now a JK they need all the help they can get

I thought they had both... a choke and a cold start.
I have one to the left and one to the right of the steering wheel.
The van definietly works better in the morning with the one on the right pulled out.
1.6d n/a and its a lhd

lhd wrote:I thought they had both... a choke and a cold start.
I have one to the left and one to the right of the steering wheel.
The van definietly works better in the morning with the one on the right pulled out.
1.6d n/a and its a lhd

The right hand side one is the cold start, the one on the left of the steering wheel is the bonnet release

It doesn't do your engine any harm, to the contrary, to pull the "choke" on every start from cold, no matter if it's above or below freezing outside.

Just makes starting easier

Good tip. Thanks. I was also told that disengaging the clutch before turning the ignition on reduces friction (?) on the fly wheel and makes starting easier too.

It's getting like pre-flight checks this.

Pressing the clutch de-couples your gearbox ...so the starter motor has to turn the engine only and not the gearbox as well, making it last longer.

Plus it stops your van from jumping should you accidentally have left it in gear ...could be a life saver, that one.

i insist the missus uses it every morning on her 1y also,it just lifts the revs enough to smooth out the engine till the lumpy first starty thing has gone!! if you know what i mean