I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Difficulty starting
Hello,
I’m looking for any advice on fixes for my issue before taking it into a garage.
The car is very hard to get started. It can take 4 or 5 cranks for several seconds for it to ‘catch’. The cranks sound very positive. This issue is worse on the very cold days and slightly better on the milder days. The issue mostly goes away once the engine is warmed up. It starts up first crank.
Things I have tried:
New (more powerful) battery
New plugs, leads, and coil pack
New fuel filter
I am going to be trying a new cam angle sensor later this week.
Any insight into why this happens would be great. Maybe the fact that it doesn’t happen once the engine is warm helps rule out some things.
There is another potentially related issue too. Engine jolting/jerking/revs momentarily dropping at high RPM under heavy load.
Trying to get the starting thing sorted first though!
From your description I would hazard a guess at fuel pump/filter/pressure.
Engines need more fuel when cold, plus will have a higher requirement for volume at high revs, hence if filter is blocked, or fuel pump is unable to maintain pressure under high demand, your symptoms could occur.
Hopefully someone on here will be able to offer more specific advice, as I’m not overly familiar with the early systems. Good luck sorting it out.
Thanks and yes that’s what I thought too! I changed the fuel filter and it didn’t help unfortunately. Fuel pump is on my list but it’s on the pricier side so trying some cheaper bits first
My first thought was HT leads (especially due to the jolting under load) but you already changed those. Sticky idle air valve is possible but tends to show up as revs dropping too low when stopping at junctions. If it was that you would be able to get it started with just a touch of the throttle.
I’m tending toward the suggestion of the crank sensor (rather than CAS as it’s a 1999 model).
The revs do bog down when slowing at a junction, to around 500rpm which feels right on the edge of stalling. It seems to do this only sometimes. Thanks for the suggestions, couple of extra things to try
You don’t say if you have run a diagnostic error check?
I would do that to see if the ecu is picking up any issue.
Cold start problem could be ecu related; have you checked the ecu for damp ingress. Obviously ignore this if generally garaged or hardtop fitted.
Hmm, I’ve experienced this with other makes of car, and it was often a problem caused by the PCV valve being either stuck shut or stuck open and consequently upsetting the idle control system. Also the sticking can be temperature dependent, often intermittently OK when hot, but most often jams when the goo around the ball is cold and sets - eventually permanently and then needing solvent-washing-out.
If your car’s PCV valve rattles when you take it out (cold) and gently shake it, then it is OK, and look elsewhere for the solution.
Another symptom of a related problem is emulsion on the inside of the oil-filler cap. This can simply be because of a blocked PCV, or less likely but more seriously blow-by on rings or valve guides or remotely possible head-gasket beginning to leak. Look at exhaust smoke when cold and again when fully warmed up; white? blue? black? and is the inside of the well-warmed-up exit-tip correspondingly wet, oily, sooty?
Check the simple things first; emulsion, PCV, throttle stop, damp in the plug wells, sparks in the dark, CAS, etc.
