I have this frequent starting problem and I'm hoping somebody here has some ideas. I have an 85 GSL-SE that I bought about a month ago. The car starts right up when it's dead cold. Sitting for a week in freezing temperatures, no problem. Drive it around, stop in a store, have lunch, whatever, no problem. Drive it somewhere, park it for a few hours, then it won't start. It cranks and cranks and sounds like it's wants to start, but doesn't quite kick in. A few times it did eventually start (luckily I have a new battery) and twice I had to remove spark plugs, and play around before it started. I don't know too much about FI, the cars I've had with fuel injection have been Acuras and Hondas, and they always start.

Questions:
What is the FI equivalent of a choke? How does it control the air/fuel mxture depending on the temperature?

Can I take off the little hose in the housing from the FI to the air cleaner and spray starter fluid in there? Will it help?

I'm guessing that some sensor either thinks the car is doing a hot start when it's really semi-cold, or thinks it's a dead cold start when the car is still warm. Any ideas what sensors might be involved?

Thanks

 

First guess it that 1(usually) of your injectors is dripping. Very common on 2nd gens. I have seen it on ses of course too, just not as often.

Injector may not be completely sealing off when a pulse is not applied. When you shut the car off, fuel pressure remains in the lines to the injector. Sometimes it is enough to drip from the tip of the "clogged" or sometimes worn out injector and drip into the combustion chamber flooding the housing. Sometimes the car is harder to start after it is left longer due to more fuel having washed the housings. Leave it alone sitting long enough (a few days) and enough will vaporize to pseudo unflood the housing and presto: easy start.

I'm not saying this is the ONLY cause of this problem, just my first guess.

Mazdatrix makes a bleed of kit ( temp fix) Read about it here:

http://www.mazdatrix.com/c-bleed.htm

More than likely you will need to remove and replace (or at least clean ) the injectors.

Good luck!

 

$52.50 for a bandaid, they're kidding, right? Pull the injectors and send them out to be cleaned and calibrated. Do it right the first time, you will be happier with the results, probably get better gas mileage as a bonus.

 

Yeah. And I took one apart once. It is just the open fittings and the center section is tapped and a nikki primary jet is installed to bleed off the fuel pressure. Lowers fuel pressure 8 - 12 psi while running so they call it a diagnostic part not for driving use. But that 8-12 bleed gets rid of the fuel left pressurized in the lines when you turn it off in about 10 - 15 sec.

 

Injectors could be cause of the problem. Sometimes what happens is that the AFM is not closeing all the way and when you turn the key to the on posistion the fuel pump starts pumping. It should not start until you crank. You can verify this by turning the key to the on posistion and go back to the fuel pump and see if it is on. Also the coolant temp sensor that sends a signal to the ECU is bad and tells the computer to deliver too much fuel. That's ok when it is cold out but when the temp rises, too much fuel is no good.
Recommend first if you can find a can of bg44k fuel injection cleaner. Run it thru with about a
1/2 tank or less, thats if you don't wnat to pull the injectors out and have them cleaned and tested.
For now until you fix the problem, to start it when it is warm. Do the following. As you start the engine cranking, depress your foot all the way on the throttle, this will help it start.
If it will not start, remove the fuel inlet hose and crank it until fuel comes out then shut it off
reattach the hose and then restart.
Welcome to the world of Se inejection.

 

Much easier to pull the Fusible Link for the "INJECTION" system at the driver's side strut tower and crank than playing around with raw fuel in the lines. This will unflood the car by shutting down fuel injectors while you're cranking it to dry it out.

My guess is also on the Temp Sensor located at the water pump housing - this sensor tells the ECU when the engine is hot and should utilize the fuel map for hot-starts. The SE's have a 'double-throttle' that is activated by the Thermowax Pellet, but this system is only used for cold starts and is both mechanical and coolant heat activated to close down airflow to the engine; i.e, functioning as a choke.

Given the relative complexity of the SE EFI system, it may be several things happening at the same time that are leading to your hot-start issues. I would start with the coolant temp sensor, and then go with injector cleaning. From there, you'd have to dig deeper to find the root cause. HTH,