I’m sincerely apologize if this has been answered a thousand times but I need to post more anyways and I couldnt find exactly what I was looking for just by searching.

anyways, the other day at a meet my GXL decided it didn’t want to start up. Now I have this problem on occasion where when I got start the car, it has trouble idling for a second or two but I just lightly hold the gas until it stabilizes and it’s good to go, pretty sure this is a vacuum issue. But the other day I go to start, and it just kept cranking. I know it wasn’t a fuel issue cause I could feel it wanting to start, and could smell the excess fuel, like it was starting for a half second and dying. Eventually I just cranked it for about 15 ish seconds and slammed the pedal to the floor and it started, and later in the night it started up immediately with no problem. Was this just a flooded engine? I’ve been pretty good at keeping it from flooding so I’ve never experienced before. There was no noticeable lack of power and the car drove fine gear to gear (just to check lol). I’ve since cleaned my air filter just to be safe. Any info from you guys is welcome as I still have some thing to learn about my car, had it got about a year and a half. Thank you!

 

Sounds like flooding. Were all of these occasions hot-starts?

The usual cause is fuel injectors. When you shut the car off hot, the excess pressure squeezes the fuel down through the injectors into the manifold. That combined with the lower compression when hot causes difficulty starting.

The other possibility is low compression, but that's less likely.

 

yeah it has always started up up real easy cold, only ever have some issues when it’s hot. I always rev it up real quick before I shut it off to prevent flooding. But this is the first time it’s sputtered like it did. If it just sounds like it was flooded then that’s great news. I’ve been checking all the rubber lines and other possible causes just to make sure.

 

A good diagnostic / bandaid fix for the flooding is to add a switch for the fuel pump and put it somewhere convenient (say under the dash). Then when you are ready to turn off the car, instead of using the key, flip the switch.

The car will sputter and die from the lack of fuel pressure. This way no pressure is left in the rails to squeeze through the injectors. And then remember to turn the key to OFF and take it out.

The correct fix is rebuilding the injectors, but this is a perfectly acceptable fix for the short term. And it will tell you if the injectors are the problem for sure. Remember to take the utmost care while doing the wiring though, since you don't want your fuel pump to stop running while driving.

It also provides a small security benefit since you can leave the switch off when away from the car and a thief will have to find it before starting, but obviously putting it in a convenient location like under the dash makes it likely they will find it immediately.