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Hi Guys,

I've got a really strange problem when starting my car. I'll try my best to explain it.

When I come to the car first thing in the morning (it's parked on the street) it starts no problems.

I drive about 6 miles to work and it takes about 20 minutes depending on traffic.

Right, here's the wierd thing. When I come back to my car either at lunch time or to go home, it has trouble starting. When I first start my car in the morning, the revs jump to about 1200 then settle down to normal tickover (about 680 - 700). When I start my car after it's been used they struggle to get up to tick over. It doesn't fail to start, just struggles and starts after approximately3 - 5 seconds of trying.

This can happen if I've been driving it for hours on the motorway or just nipping to the shops.

It's happening really randomly - some days it will be fine, others it will struggle. Also, some days it will only struggle a little and start fine, others it's only just getting to the idle.

I've had it read (many times) and there are NO faults in the system. I've had the throttle position reset every time and the problem still persists. I've cleaned out the Throttle body and the butterfly.

Still no joy.

It's never failed to start (yet!) and I'm loathed to start replacing parts to see if I can find it - it could cost a fortune.

The starter motor is less than 12 months old so it can't be that. New fuel pump 2 months ago too.

I'm thinking the throttle/ fuel pressure regulator????

Just wondering if there's anyone out there who's had a similar problem, or can offer some advice.

There's no alarm/ immobiliser problems.

Anyone who can offer ANY advice - I'd be most grateful.

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well not sure I can offer any advice mate but to reassure you that mine does the same sort of thing and has done for ages !! When cold it always starts perfectly and first time but when warm it can takes ages turning over before it fires, some days it's worse than others but as you say touch wood it has never failed to start so am not really bothered about it !! I can only imagine it's something in the starter motor that doesn't like getting hot !! as I have changed most other things on the car recently :)

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Thanx for the reply Ben, not sure mine is the starter motor though - it's almost new!!

I guess there's a chance it could be faulty, but I'd assume it'd be worse from cold not warm.

It's a really funny way that it starts - the motor is spinning from the starter motor fine, just seems to be a little starved of fuel or something, but the fuel pressure is fine - had that checked when I had the fuel pump changed and it's fine.

No problems with the coil pack or leads or plugs.... :S

I'm going to change the throttle body tomorrow to see if that's it, thought it could possibly be a faulty control unit on the throttle????

Any one with any other ideas/ thoughts I'd be most grateful...

Cheers for the input so far...

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It wouldn't be the first new part to go wrong mate ;)

would be worth giving the throttle body a check to see if it's dirty mate and if not rather than just change the whole thing you can change the throttle position sensor on the side which is another culprit for dodgy start/idle issues - either that or the fuel pump relay although I don't know why either would be worse when hot !!

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I've cleaned the throttle body out last week - spent ages on it - made sure there was no build up of carbon or oil...

Think I'll try the throttle swap, and if that cures it I'll have a go at swapping the position sensor form one to the other - the one on the car at the moment is mirror polished on the INSIDE...

I thought about the fuel pump relay and also the temp sensors but there's no faults... Might have a go with the fuel pump relay - I'm guessing they're only a tenner or so, just need to work out which one it is! lol

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OK guys...

I've changed the throttle and it's still doing it!!! GRR :@

Going to try to get a fuel relay, but I can't see it being that if it starts from cold. Surely it would suffer more when starting from cold or rather, would do it all the time??

The stupid thing is it's never failed to start!!! I don't want it to get to a point where something HAS to fail to find it - that could be expensive!

Is there any other ideas out there that could possibly help...

Coil pack? MAF (although no faults recorded!)...

The battery is less than six months old and is cranking the engine fine as is the starter.

Again, can't see it being the starter motor it's working from cold so I can't see it playing up after it's started once.

It's probably something and nothing but I CAN'T figure it out!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRR

No codes again!!! So nothing is showing up as faulty!

ANY advice/ help would be most grateful...

Cheers guys...

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