intermittent starting problem
Posted: 10 Oct 2018, 22:01
Help! I’ve got a really strange intermittent starting problem - this used to happen 5 ish times a year, but now it’s getting increasingly frequent, making the van a complete unknown whether it will start or not.
So please bear with me, it’s a bit long winded but it all hopefully makes sense.
Turning the ignition, the starter motor spins nice and freely but the engine just doesn’t catch. Repeated tries cause the same effect. Then one attempt out of many the engine will seem to be almost catching, but still not firing up completely, and oddly it sounds like it’s almost there, but continues as long as I keep the ignition turned. Another attempt foot the floor the engine sort of fires up, but at really really low revs, pumping the accelerator has no effect and just maintains a low rumble. Now at this point, it might suddenly take and respond to the accelerator, or it can just keep its low rumble until I release this key. The other scenario that normally happens; I take the engine and pretend to know what I’m doing, fiddling with cables, making sure fuel is coming through, with another attempt at turning the ignition it fires up, probably not initially responding to the accelerator but after 5 or so seconds it behaves! What the blithering heck!?
As I said this used to happen a few times a year, and mainly on wet days, so I’ve always thought it was electronic, but now I’m not so sure.
I’ve recently had the injectors cleaned, and pretty much all electronic components are fairly newish (ecu, coil, amp, flow meter, idle control unit, fuel filter and fuel pump)
So anyone got any ideas? It’s quite hard for mechanics to debug as previously if I’ve got towed to them, when they’ve come round to looking at it, she starts!!
2.1i DJ
So please bear with me, it’s a bit long winded but it all hopefully makes sense.
Turning the ignition, the starter motor spins nice and freely but the engine just doesn’t catch. Repeated tries cause the same effect. Then one attempt out of many the engine will seem to be almost catching, but still not firing up completely, and oddly it sounds like it’s almost there, but continues as long as I keep the ignition turned. Another attempt foot the floor the engine sort of fires up, but at really really low revs, pumping the accelerator has no effect and just maintains a low rumble. Now at this point, it might suddenly take and respond to the accelerator, or it can just keep its low rumble until I release this key. The other scenario that normally happens; I take the engine and pretend to know what I’m doing, fiddling with cables, making sure fuel is coming through, with another attempt at turning the ignition it fires up, probably not initially responding to the accelerator but after 5 or so seconds it behaves! What the blithering heck!?
As I said this used to happen a few times a year, and mainly on wet days, so I’ve always thought it was electronic, but now I’m not so sure.
I’ve recently had the injectors cleaned, and pretty much all electronic components are fairly newish (ecu, coil, amp, flow meter, idle control unit, fuel filter and fuel pump)
So anyone got any ideas? It’s quite hard for mechanics to debug as previously if I’ve got towed to them, when they’ve come round to looking at it, she starts!!
2.1i DJ