All right, guys... I just had the mother of all hard starts. Even though I haven't written in a little while, my hard start has been creeping back in over the past week or two, steadily getting worse and worse. Well, tonight, I hit rock-bottom. I'm going to explain in great detail what just happened and invite as much feedback as I can get. I'm really, really stumped, and to be honest with you, I'm now leaning away from fuel delivery problems and spark problems and thinking that maybe this is an emissions issue. I'm an idiot at diagnosis, though, so if you do not agree, feel free to shoot down anything I say.
Okay, here's Jon's story. I went to the video store to grab a few DVDs for the evening. I was in the store for around 30-45 minutes. I came out to the car, ready to go home, and tried to start her up. For the first time EVER (since the beginning of my hard start issue, I mean) my hard start became a no start. I turned her over and turned her over and nothing. Not even the slightest hiccup to let me know that she was even trying to fire. It's been suggested to me over and over again that the MFR might be bad. So, at this point, I'm thinking that that's what it is. These people also have said that if you wait half an hour or so, often times this no-start will fix itself and the car will miraculously start. I wasn't far from home and I had my skates in the back, so I headed home to do a little MFR research while I waited to see if the problem was going to work itself out. I was gone maybe another 45 minutes. So, we're looking at a total of 1:30-1:45 since she'd been running.
Anyway, I get back to the car and cross my fingers. Same story. Extended crank without even the slightest indication that she wants to fire. At this point, I was still thinking MFR. I get out of the car, grab a screw driver, pull the #1 plug wire, and set it up so that I can crank the car and see whether spark will jump to ground. I start to crank her and see spark right away. So, I reconnect the plug, shut the hood and hop back into the driver's seat. I decided to try again. I cranked her over, off and on, for about the next three minutes, and finally, I decide to give up. I hadn't gotten any indication whatsoever that she wanted to fire, so why wouldn't I? I got out of the car, went into the video store to ask them not to tow my car, then came back out to contemplate my next move.
So, I'm coming back out to the car, and I hop back into the driver's seat. By this point, it's been almost two hours since she'd run. The temperature is only 48 degrees out, so I'm doubting the validity of the hot weather MFR failure scenario. Everything's quiet where I'm at, so I hop inside the car and turn on the key. I'm listening for MFR relay click and also to see if the pump is powering up when I turn on the key. Heard one click from the dashboard, but that one was in conjunction with the Check Engine Light turning off. I DO hear the pump, however. I turn the key off and on a few times, and everytime, I can hear the pump cycle on.
So, now I'm doubting MFR problems and thinking along the lines of crank or cam sensors. That wouldn't explain the rough idle on start-up, but hell... right now I don't even have start up. I'd all but given up and decided to walk home when I decided that one more try wouldn't hurt. So, I let her rip. Now, I know I'm not supposed to do this, but I decided to hold the key for an extended period of time. I'm rolling the starter for about 30 seconds when I get the slightest little hiccup from the car during turnover. It's not that she actually tried to start, but at least it was a slight indication that fuel and fire were getting into the cylinders at the right times. So, I tried to roll her over again. Same thing. After a little while, I get the slight little hiccup during the extended crank. Once again, though, nothing that could be mistaken for a genuine attempt at idling by the car.
Now, I try another idea. I decide to crank her over for just a few seconds at a time, one right after another. I crank the starter for about 2 seconds, then release, then wait a second and repeat. About every third or fourth time I do this, something happens. It's a little more than a hiccup this time, but not quite into the realm of "attempting to idle". But, it is a source of optimism. So, I decide to flutter the hell out of the gas whenever this happens. The next time it does, I jack-hammer the hell out of the accelerator and she tries to run. Very poorly, but tries to run no less. She never actually gets to idle, but before completely dying, she decides to back-fire on me. It wasn't the loud, firecracker kind of backfires that I'm used to. Like the kind you get out of the tailpipe. It kinda sounded like the car coughed back at me through the intake and the throttle body.
The whole process is still getting better, though, so I repeat what I'm doing. Two more times, I get the "attempted idle" and "backfire before dying". Then, on the fourth time, she decided to run for me. It starts out really bad. The idle is REALLY rough. I can't over-emphasize how rough the idle was. She coughs at me a few times, but somehow keeps from dying. Then, slowly but surely, the idle starts to get stronger. She stops shaking... then, just like that, the idle catches. The tach shoots up to 1200 rpm (or whatever the cold-idle rpm is) and the car runs like a dream. No hesitation. No missing. It was just like nothing was wrong. I drove her home and she ran like a champion. I don't get it!!
The only thing I can think of is vapor lock. You know the way old carbureted cars used to do that? Well, I didn't think that fuel injected cars really did that, since FI systems run at higher pressure. But, that's the only thing I can think of. It feels to me like my car is choking on it's own exhaust and has to spit out whatever it's choking on in order to run like it's supposed to.
So, what do you guys think? I'm baffled. This is some ridiculous shit. If you can help or lend me any type of experience or expertise, I'd greatly appreciate anything you can tell me. Oh, and thanks for reading this epic. Sorry if you fell asleep half way through.
I thank you in advance for any help that you can give.
Jon
