Hi my car is struggling to start. I bought it as a project and am baffled by this. If you leave it 24 hours it won't start and takes 5 or 6 tries to get going. Once it's started its ok but on both occasions it's runs with a miss fire for a min or 2. I wondered if it could be a fuel pump problem but my garage think it's electrical. Anyone had anything similar
Mine did this when the throttle body was failing, but I didn't have the mis-fire. Sometimes it would start but be in limp mode so wouldn't go above 3k revs, and other times it would start but only on tick-over revs - pedal did nothing.
No fault codes which is confusing. When end it won't start there is a buzzing or chiming noise coming from the throttle body. I don't know if that's right or wrong. Can the throttle body be cleaned?
Yeah it can be cleaned which is an easy job, but I'm not sure that would account for it not starting. I had to have the whole TB replaced - the error was something like "throttle body return motor malfunction" I'd get it to one of the specialists on here tbh - Mick @ diamond motors or Mark Black.
Have you got a diagnostic machine? If not your onto a guessing game. Otherwise if no fault codes, you need to read the perameter data and see if you can see anything unusual.
Ok i can get the codes read to see what it says. I had a auto electrician look over it and he couldn't find anything. Are re there any specialists near Cambridge?
Once it starts you can turn it on and off again like normal but runs lumpy for a min or 2 but It's a pain to start if it's been sitting for a few hours could it be the fuel pump would that make sense?
Have you checked fuel preasure and things like that as known that the intank fuel pumps can be a issue we had one other week what had cracked it's intank pump housing so most of fuel preasure was just being dumped straight bank into the fuel tank. It's original symptoms was struggling to start and cylinder miss fires. After a new pump and injector clean it was spot on.
No I haven't but I suspect the fuel pump. Those symptoms sound just like mine. Was the pump expensive?
i drove to rs tuning back in feb for rolling road day had no issues before and then went to start car to proceed to drive on the rollers after few hours and wouldnt turn over. sounded like the fuel pump wasnt kicking in and everything else seemed fine no fault codes either. AA managed to get it started by banging the fuel pump under the rear seats. he blamed it on sticking fuel pump, spoke to mick at diamond who said it was most likely the fuel regulator failing iirc. the whole fuel pump was replaced under warranty which included the new regulator and it was fine after that. Not saying yours is the same but could be a consideration?
Thanks I thought this could be the case and your not the first to suggest the same thing. I will get the pressure tested
It was a mini hole in the fuel line allowing the system to de pressurise which meant the fuel ran back to the tank. Replaced fuel line it now starts first time. One happy boy & onto the next job.
so some sort of check valve is in place to prevent fuel running back into tank, but if the system is not pressurized on the engine side of, it doesn't do its job?
Correct. As its letting air into the system so allowing the fuel to return back into the tank. As it cant hold a vacuum anymore
