Valkyrie

Does anyone know what can cause a car to have trouble starting up after not driving for 3-4 days?

It seems to happen to me like clockwork, but I can always get it to crank if I crank it for about... a minute straight... (ok, sarcasm... I just do a lot of 10 second bursts to keep from overheating the starter). Assuming I didn't forget to hook something up.

At first it just turns over and over, without so much as a poof, but then suddenly I'll hear it start to fire a bit; at which point, I crank it some more, and it eventually fires up, usually with the help of a bit throttle.

It also runs rough for a little while after starting... and sometimes won't hold an idle.

For the record, holding down the gas pedal seems to do little in terms of de-flooding, so I don't know if it's flooding per-say.

Any ideas on what could cause this?

I think it could be that the fuel drains out out of the lines and back into the tank, making me have to prime the fuel system...although this seems unlikely because it shouldn't take more than a few seconds of the fuel pump running to fill the lines back up.

I guess the more likely culprit would simply be leaky injectors, as I can usually smell gas after I crank it a bit... but then again that might just be from it not starting.


Or perhaps it's just crappy compression made worse but not having OMP oil in the combustion chambers? This seems unlikely as it cranks up reliably whenever driven regularly, pulls hard, and was rebuilt (supposedly 15,000 miles ago), seeing as how it has two-piece apex seals... (unless I'm mistaken)

I'm not having this issue at the moment, but I'd like to fix it.

jackhild59

iTrader: (7)

If you haven't replaced the spark plugs in a while, do it. If you haven't done that, you might as well do the full tune up, including adjust the TPS

Beyond that, you will have to do a little more research and give a little more info.

S4 or S5? Only S5 has the deflooding circuitry.

Do you ever lose any coolant? Some coolant could be leaking past the seals and wetting the plugs.

You could have leaky injectors. Just cause the engine was rebuilt doesn't mean they reworked the injectors. Try using a double dose of Techron in the tank for a couple of fillups. This is in my opinion the BEST injector cleaner available.


Good luck.

Valkyrie

S5... so as long as it's working right, it has the anti-flooding system.

Coolant seals are only 4000 miles old. Plugs are never wet from what I can see (I've taken them out many times when I've had issues).

TPS gets adjusted like...every three days... lol

I've also used injector cleaners a few times... including Seafoam and Technron pre-mixed in the fuel (I think).