So my stupid car has started being a bigger and bigger bitch to start as the mornings got cold, and has started getting worse recently.
Finally yesterday It just wouldn’t start at all. Acting like it’s getting no gas. So I floor it to drain it in case it was flooded(It’s fuel injected, that’s important). Still no good. After a couple minutes or so of trying I finally got pissed and stomped the gas pedal a few times, it started to sputter to life but didn’t quite get there. So I started cranking and worked the gas pedal, after six or 7 pumps it started like a champ.
I was kind of surprised since I’m pretty sure FI doesn’t work that way. I figured it must be coincidence, maybe it got warm enough from the cranking to ignite the mixture it was getting.
It happened again yesterday. This time after Three or four failed normal key turns, I again started pumping the gas. Again, it started pretty quickly. There was very little time for anything to warm at all, so coincidence is tougher to explain this time.
Anybody have any idea why pumping the gas is starting a fuel injected engine?
I just did a search on ‘why pumping the gas is starting a fuel injected engine’ without the quotes and in yahoo answers, if you ignore the assholes, there were one or two responses that said that when the gas pedal is depressed, the electronics cut the signal to the injectors so that they don’t spray any gas.
So what might have happened, and i’m pulling this out of my ass here, is that the first couple of key turns got the cylinders wet with gas, then when you held down the pedal, that prevented more gas from coming in - as counter intuitive as that may be. That let the cylinder dry out just enough for you to get a spark.
However why you should have to go through this dance is still a mystery.
Rotorhead here (Mazda rx7 nut), flooding is a PITA issue for us, especially in the first generation GSL-SE models. These have a 13B engine with fuel injection and are notorious for flooding if you look at them the wrong way. More specifically if you start them and shut them off before they warm fully up. About the only way to start one then is to depress the throttle to the floor while cranking the engine. Doing this cuts the fuel flow to the engine, allowing the excess fuel to get thrown out the exhaust and eventually allowing the engine to fire. I am not sure if all fuel injection engines work this way, but I suspect that is what is happening here.
Can you describe what you mean by “Normal key turns”?
What I am looking for, are you turning the key on, and to start and for how long are you cranking for each normal turn, and are you just letting up on the key and then again engaging the starter?
Or, are you turning the ignition off each time you stop cranking the engine over?
And year and make etc. is always useful.
In cold weather or after a number of days of not running, I turn on my ignition pause 3-4 seconds turn off key and turn back on, pause 3-4 seconds and then crank engine over. my old Dodge starts rapidly when I do this vs my cranking time is longer and starts are ragged if I don’t do it this way.
I believe I am priming my engine for a richer air/fuel mix kind of like what a choke would do back in the day.
First things first, take your car battery to the auto parts store and have them check it. I know this might sound counterintuitive but with cold weather problems that is where I start, here in the US that is usually free. A few amps can make a huge difference.
After that its fuel system time, filter(s), pump and injectors
Thanks for the suggestions. It did it one more time so I asked a dude to try to turn it over while I listened to engine closely. not good. It sounds way wrong, like a timing belt/valve issue. I decided to stop playing with it before I screw up a valve or otherwise make things worse, and had it towed to my guy for the weekend.
y’know what irritates me? I’ve read so many of these kinds of threads where the OP ignores the question of what make/model/year of car he/she is talking about.
Word word
Diagnose my car over the Internet without a good description of the issue, or even the make model and year.
No problem. I’ll get right on that.
If the car is fuel injected, do not pump the go pedal before turning the key. You can gently give it gas after but you may flood the engine by doing so beforehand.
If you have any water at all in your fuel tank or line, this could be your problem. It can turn to ice crystals and block the fuel. Cheap remedy that won’t hurt your engine any is to dump some isopropyl alcohol in the tank to help evaporate the water.
If that doesn’t help resolve the issue, then you may need to start throwing money at the problem and replace the fuel filter or more.
I think the OP did OK by having the car towed to a shop. There they can do a proper diagnosis.
I recently had a similar problem of hard starting on my 91 Ford Ranger. It would usually start normally but every now and then it would crank and crank and only start after I cranked for 10-15 seconds at WOT. After a time it became the norm rather then an every so often problem. Turned out to be failed ignition switch. Had I tried to figure that at on my own, I guess I might have done so but it would have taken several days. The $90 diagnosis fee was money well spent.
And in two or three days time the exact same issues with a different OP and different obscurely described symptoms will surface and it will be lather, rinse, repeat.
And we do over and over again. I’m happy to share my knowledge with members of the dope, but crying out loud meet me halfway and at the very least tell me the year make and model.
Ever since my crystal ball broke and the physic friends hotline went tits up, you have to work with me. Or I could just pick a year make and model at random and answer for that. For example for this OP the answer might be: Well on a 59 Borgward your problem is most likely caused by a stuck choke butterfly. Take off the air cleaner and free it up.
I never intended to argue that you didn’t have a valid point (although I wouldn’t turn my back on any ‘physic’ friends ). My only point was that after he said he had it towed to the shop, it was sort of what you’d call beating a dead horse is all - especially since the point had already been raised, and unfortunately ignored, prior to that.
not good. It sounds way wrong, like a timing belt/valve issue. I decided to stop playing with it before I screw up a valve or otherwise make things worse, and had it towed to my guy for the weekend.
). My only point was that after he said he had it towed to the shop, it was sort of what you’d call beating a dead horse is all - especially since the point had already been raised, and unfortunately ignored, prior to that.