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EA CFI starting problem

3K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  eskyboi 
#1 ·
Maybe some of you guys can help with a starting problem with my son’s EA sedan.
It’s a CFI.. 4 speed auto and has a starting problem when it’s warm.

The car starts ok when cold, idles normally and runs fine.. no problems at all.
It’ll also restart ok and run fine when it’s hot, as long as it’s less than about half an hour before restarting it.
It’ll run all day once it’s going, power and fuel economy are both good (both better than my EA) and the temp gauge runs mid normal on the gauge (around ‘R’ to ‘M’) or slightly lower in wet cold weather.

The car has done high kilometers (close to 400,000 k’s) but has been serviced regularly in the last year or so since being bought.
The engine has only very minor rattles, oil useage is minimal, cooling system has been overhauled; distributor, coil, leads, plugs etc were all replaced recently due to a failed ignition module.

The problem..
The problem, which has occurred recently, is restarting from about 30 minutes to an hour from switching it off once the engine has warmed up.
Restarting any time up to about 30 minutes is ok, but from 30 minutes up to an hour or so (as the motor is cooling down) it just won’t start again.
The starter motor turns the motor over ok, lights show normally etc, it does everything correctly except restart.
Leave it for another half an hour (after an hour or so) and it starts and runs ok as it normally does for a cold start. Open the bonnet and just leave it open and the car will start sooner than with it closed.

It seems like a heat soak thing, a vapour lock, lack of fuel, or something temperature related, or maybe a sensor, but what?
Any ideas or advise about a systematic approach to finding the problem?
 
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#2 ·
Check the fuel pump ......... Trust me ;)

My car did this in the begining ..... I started with change of fuel filters, air filters & checking all the fuel lines ........ then it started surging when the weather got warmer ....... got to the stage where the only foward movement was due to the surging of it ......

Does the engine seem overly warm when you lift the bonnet when you have problems starting it ??????


:fairy

:fairy
 
#3 ·
The engine is warm when the problem occurs, but not overly so..
But I will check the fuel pump.. It's about the only thing i haven't checked out so it might just be the problem.
Thanks
 
#4 ·
We had a sort of similar problem with dad's old XE. It wouldn't turn over when warm, but when cold, no problems. You'd turn it off, come back 5 minutes later, and it wouldn't turn over, you'd have to wait for it to fully cool down. The problem was the earth cable running off the negative battery terminal. I don't know if the EA is the same, but there would be a cable to the eninge block somewhere. To fix it we fitted a new larger gauge wire. Must have been something about drawing too much current. Never done it again since.
 
#5 ·
Mine used to do that before i replaced the dizzy (tfi and hall effect). Does it once in a while now.

Didn't do it all when the temp sensor was tricked to make the motor think it was colder, fixed the problem.

Now to finish this mpfi conversion and say goodbye to cfi for ever :)
 
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