[aziraphale]

over the last week or so, my car has become a little harder to start.

seems to take a few more "turns" to fire up from cold, and seemingly a couple more turns are needed every couple of days, so it's taking a while. drives fine, no lumpy idle or anythign once it's going, but it's taking longer.

obvious check is the battery, which is warranted, but what else could be causing the problem?

occasionally when it's started from hot, it was start literally instantly, but then idle very low until the accelerator is tapped, then behaves as normal.

 

[jwq]

battery, as mentioned. Else perhaps sparkplugs...
Also check throttle for dirt

 

[Dodger]

Sounds like a battery problem, it's certainly where I'd be looking first. The other symptom could be a dirty throttle body as mentioned above.

 

[aziraphale]

cheers, will look at connections and get a multimeter on the battery, fully test it if necessary.

 

[aziraphale]

possibly fixed now!

checked battery terminal fuseboard before getting multimeter on it, found one nut missing from the 30A ignition fuse....replaced with a nylock i found in the garage, car started straight up. will see what happens when it's started from cold.

tested batt with multimeter anyway, all ok!

 

[jwq]

:thumbs:

 

[Guest]

possibly fixed now!

checked battery terminal fuseboard before getting multimeter on it, found one nut missing from the 30A ignition fuse....replaced with a nylock i found in the garage, car started straight up. will see what happens when it's started from cold.

tested batt with multimeter anyway, all ok!

I may be wrong, but the ignition relay would either be functioning, or not functioning at all. Whilst it may not have been properly connected, the car still started.

I think the trouble may lie elsewhere.....but quite where, I don't know.

 

[aziraphale]

entirely possible. it's a start though!

 

[Guest]

entirely possible. it's a start though!

I hope the fix has worked.....we all need the occasional easy fix to get us through the toil that can be Alfa ownership:thumbs:

 

[mossawi]

Fuel pump maybe? you can tell if it starts ok soon after you switch it off or not.

 

[aziraphale]

will check how well it starts immediately after switching off.

 

[Dangerm]

sounds like a problem I had. Oil was leaking slowly onto the starter motor. It became harder & harder to start, until it gave up the ghost. An expensive fix as it is really hard to replace in situ.

 

[aziraphale]

hmm. where's the starter motor located on these engines?

there's no obvious leak, but worth investigating.

 

[Chrisv6]

You dont want to know. Its at the back of the engine, hidden behind the manifold..... .

 

[JR Racing]

Seriously to me that sounds like either a battery of throttle body issue.

I'd d/c the battery and t/b connections. Remove the throttle body and give it a damn good soaking in carb cleaner or similar.

Once soaked, clean the butterfly with a rag the refit.

The idle control valve and throttle position sensor often become black with dirt from the intake tract, get sticky and it causes poor starting and an iffy idle.

I'd be looking here first before even thinking about Starters etc...

 

[Guest]

^^ That's a good point. I carefully cleaned around the butterfly when my car was lumpy on cold idle. I can't recall if it took any longer to start, but if the TB is very sooty then this could be a symptom.
Mine wasn't too bad so I was able to clean it in situ.

 

[Flapdog]

Where is the idle control valve and throttle pos sensor located on these cars?

 

[Flapdog]

Also had an issue with lazy starting when I first got the car - seems to have gone away now but suspect it was a dodgy electrical connection to the throttle body.

 

[JR Racing]

The sensors are all located in the throttle body as far as I know. That's what the electrical connections are for.

 

[Pud237]

Where is the idle control valve and throttle pos sensor located on these cars?

There is no idle control valve, the ECU controls the idle by adjusting the main throttle valve. The position sensor is built into the throttlebody as well.