New MFI Cold Start Question
 

As some of you have read, my 2.7L MFI Carrera has suddenly become very difficult to start when cold. It used to fire right up, but now requires quite a bit of cranking. This has led me to focus on the cold start switch as the culprit.

I poked around a bit more at the Euro this morning and determined the following:

1) I was initially mistaken in thinking that the power wire to the cold start swithc was not connected. It turns out that the 2 loose wires I found are probably for the rear window wiper which is missing on my car.

2) I used a test light to confirm that the cold start solenoid is getting power when I crank the motor.

3) I also trickle charged the battery in the unlikely event I was not getting enough juice to start the car. This was not the case, nor did I think it would be since the car starts just fine when warm.

The car is still not starting very easily when cold. I could pull off a fuel line to see if it is getting any gas when I start the car. Not sure I want to do that however, as my mechanical skills are a bit more limited.

I'm all ears however, if anybody has any other ideas of why my car has suddenly gone from easy to start when cold to now requiring quite a bit of cranking.

Thanks to all.

Rob

I would unhook the small hose going from the solenoid to the plastice monifolds, put one going to a gas can in its place and confirm that it is actually pumping fuel. If it is, you can take off your aircleaner while you still have that hose unhooked and shoot some compressed air (or lung power air) into the hose that goes to the stacks. Listen at the stack tops for air coming out.

Also, how long do you let your fuel pump run before you crank? I find that if i let mine run for a minute first, it fires faster.

Paul

I believe that these motors just like a lot of gas to fire up when cold. I actually pour some gas down the throats of the webers to fire the motor for the first time after it has been sitting for a while.

If I can remember correctly, the fuel enrichment circuit on the MFI was on a timer. It is only on for a very short period of time when you start the motor. You might try to turn the key off then on again when trying to start the motor to give it some more gas to start.

The next thing if your enrichment circuit is working peoperly is to wire a separate pushbutton switch in parallel to give it an extra squirt when trying to start.

Above all find out if the enrichment circuit is working and you have fuel trickling down the stacks to fire.

Good luck,
David Duffield