When I bought my Vitesse last year the previous owner said that you have to wait for the car to warm up before you can drive it. This was true as from cold the car would just cut out if you touched the throttle. You could feather the throttle lightly to get the revs up but it sounded like it was knocking.

I noticed other people on here had similar problems so I tried the solutions on here like cleaning the plenum chamber and checking for leaks with no change, so it led me to believe there was a fuelling problem.

Then my fuel pump packed up so I thought that might have been the problem. Nope!! Then I changed the ignition coil, plugs, leads, and oil change. Finally fitted a fuel pressure regulator and still no difference.

At this point I started thinking it may be the ECU so this morning I bought a multimeter to check some voltages.

The one thing that stands out under my bonnet is the Throttle potentiometer as it has been replaced very recently by the previous owner and is connected by a choccy block. I did some research on Ramon's TP guide and I checked my voltages for this and was gettin 4.3v on the yellow wire and 0.000 on the red!! At full throttle I could only get 2.0v on the red wire and moving the adjuster made virtually no difference.

I decided to remove the TP and see if there was a problem inside but it looked ok. Then I realised it could fit in a differerent orientation so I fitted it the other way up and VOILA.. instant voltage. The previous owner fitter it upside down!! I adjusted the TP so now it goes from 0.340v on idle to 3.4v full throttle, so I still have a little way to go but its a start!

After refitting the TP I put my key in the ignition this afternoon, started her and revved, and she sounded beautiful... No cut-out.

Thought this might help someone else who is having similar problems.

Thanks for your guide Ramon. Made me very happy today!

Nice one Ben, thanks for the comments.

Have to admit I cant visualise how anyone can put a TP on upside-down without completely messing up throttle rotation, unless its a substitute item???

Could you take a photo and post it on the thread to give me a clue

I will try to tomorrow if I get the chance

You mean the electrical connections were on upside down? So when the throttle was prodded for acceleration, the ECU would receive the change of voltage signal but it would be reducing, not increasing voltage. Now that would confuse the ECU

No. The actual potentiometer was fitted in the wrong orientation. It has the triangular pattern with 3 bolts which looks like it should only fit one way but it doesnt. Maybe I have a substitute one as I have never seen a standard one before.

I will take photos on weds to show you what I mean!