159 1.9JTDM Scary starting noise....

Help!

After droping the kids off at nursery yesterday I put the key in, dipped the clutch and pressed START, this was followed by what can only be described as a nosie similar to a high calibre machine gun being fired from underneath the bonnet, very loud, very fast bangs and vibration.....

I took the key out, wiped the sweat from my brow (remembering the bill from when I blew up my 156 2.0ts! ) and went throught the start sequence again...... this time she fired as normal and away we went.

Anybody have any ideas? I did wonder if I had removed my foot from the clutch too early or hadnt pressed it down enough whilst pressing start as I was in a rush.

I will phone dealer but he will say bring it in but im still awaiting for other stuff to be sorted by Alfa so was going to wait until that work was ready to be done as i've been back and forth too many times already......

A cylinder not firing? Hope it's nothing serious.

Mine did that a few times, didnt do anything about it, always ran smooth on restart.

Mine did it once - no issues subsequently.

Pete

Mine had a new starter motor but there's still a fault with the flywheel. Not so obvious on start up now.

Mine does it only in when the engine is cold

Sounds like the starter is not fully engaging.

Yes, yes had this several times, seems to be if I dont hold the 'start' button down long enough, meaning if you just press and release rather than hold, this happens. I always simply stop the engine and re-start properly and all is fine. At least i think its because I dont hold the start button in long enough, couldnt be that much of a coincidence? I have suspect flywheel issues tho so this that is interesting that someone mentioned that.

As F states it does sound/feel like the lump is only firing on 3.