Hot Start

[rdodger]

Afternoon all.

My S2 starts on the button, well key every time when cold. When the car is hot restarting often takes a couple of longer cranks to get it started.

I have no other issues with it at all.

Base timing has been reset and has made no difference.

Any ideas?

[GeoffSmith]

Possibly the CTS - check the reported temperature with Elanscan when warm.

[rdodger]

Hi

I have checked with Elanscan and the temp looked correct for the thermostat opening at around 85-90 and the fans came on at 110.

Is that about right?

[Mike T]

Afternoon all.

My S2 starts on the button, well key every time when cold. When the car is hot restarting often takes a couple of longer cranks to get it started.

I have no other issues with it at all.

Base timing has been reset and has made no difference.

Any ideas?

No answer I'm afraid, but mine does exactly the same, as do others as I understand it. Its always started though so I haven't worried too much.

[rdodger]

When I was elanscanning I tried restarting it a few times when it was hot and it was fine.

It seems more difficult to start after about an hour.

I'm guessing there is a bit of fuel evaporation?

[V8vroom]

Hi - O'm no help BUT - I have the same issue.... perfect start when cold within a second or two (almost to revvy IMO) but when warm will take around 4-5 seconds before starting.... it has always started though it just takes longer warm!?!?!?!

[CalElan]

Cold start is immediate.
Stop when hot and restart - pretty quick
Stop when hot and leave for an hour - slower to start

Cold start seems like all cylinders roar into life at the same time, whereas hot is more like each one catches in turn.. Hard to explain, but it does always start.

Same for my previous Elan too.

[Rambo]

All mine as well

[lotusflasherman]

Common to most engines - cold start is a rich mixture with little throttle opening and engine fires up quickly; hot engine is a normal mixture with some opening of the throttle and engine needs to crank a bit to get the gas flow moving.

[LE422]

:agree:


Cold start is immediate.
Stop when hot and restart - pretty quick
Stop when hot and leave for an hour - slower to start

Cold start seems like all cylinders roar into life at the same time, whereas hot is more like each one catches in turn.. Hard to explain, but it does always start.

Same for my previous Elan too.

Yep, same here with my S2. It still gives me the creeps, every time i start the car with hot engine...

[lotusflasherman]

:agree:


Cold start is immediate.
Stop when hot and restart - pretty quick
Stop when hot and leave for an hour - slower to start

Cold start seems like all cylinders roar into life at the same time, whereas hot is more like each one catches in turn.. Hard to explain, but it does always start.

Same for my previous Elan too.

Yep, same here with my S2. It still gives me the creeps, every time i start the car with hot engine...

My Honda 400/4 m/cycle was a nightmare to hot start if the battery was a bit old. Pull in for petrol with a hot engine and the battery could not crank it fast enough to start it; could not kickstart it hot as that wasn't fast enough so I used to try a running bumpstart if I was in a hurry, and feeling energetic... otherwise, it was have a cup of coffee and wait for it to cool down. If the forecourt had a bucket of water for screen washing that got thrown over the head to help cool it a bit quicker.

[HJ2]

I had the same problems for years.
Cold start: Instant on. Hot start: Cranc till everybody's looking and then start (always)
I changed ever sensor there is (not just for this reason) and what cured it was changing the injectors.

If an injector is a bit leaky, you'll need to start out the excessive fuel first before that particular cilinder fires

Hope this helps!

[Elannewbie]

I have ordered 4 new injectors and a fuel pressure regulating valve on the strength of this problem and many other threads associated to it.

This probably doesn't help much but, there are a lot of threads about it.

[Ian T]

I have the same behaviour - great, instant cold start and delayed hot / warm restart. Doesn't matter in my case whether it has just been switched off or left for an hour.

I have already changed my injectors, checked spark quality and reset my mixture, before experimenting with different base timing settings. With the CAS rotated to produce about 4 degrees of additional timing advance, starting while warm / hot improved a lot, but I wasn't happy with leaving it like that without checking and replacing the cam belt. The car drives fine and has plenty of power, so I don't believe the timing can be far adrift of where it should be.

No idea if it helps or not, but mine is either instant, or (as above) 5+ seconds of cranking. I have seen similar problems on cars caused by poor starter motors that intermittently shorted while rotating and reset the car's ECU. My next test will be to connect an oscilloscope to the power supply at the ECU and look at it while cranking to see if it is stable.

I have experimented with leaner mixture settings and it appears to start more easily, however I am less confident that it's in a safe mixture mode for proper use, so I've reset back to a conservatively high 3% CO.

I've checked my CAS and it is pretty quiet, with a maximum of about 2 degrees of slack when the reluctor wheel is wiggled, so I believe that is probably OK.

Looks like this is common behaviour, sounds to me like we need a poll of SE and S2 owners to see how widespread this is across the four most obvious conditions:

1) Cold start
2) Cold restart (within seconds of switch off)
3) Hot restart (within seconds of switch off)
4) Hot restart (an hour after switch off)

The mechanism for 4) causing problems is possibly fuel in the rail boiling and creating a gas (not liquid fuel) bubble, but the priming of the fuel pump really should drive that out pretty much instantaneously, so I fail to believe it is a 'real' problem.

[V8vroom]

1) Cold start- starts within a second or 2 no problems
2) Cold restart (within seconds of switch off) - starts within a second or 2 no problems
3) Hot restart (within seconds of switch off) - starts within a second or 2 no problems
4) Hot restart (an hour after switch off) - chugg chugg chugg chugg chugg (repeat this for around 5-10 seconds), keep fingers crossed, consider reaching for AA card - STARTS!!!

[HJ2]

did you do an elanscan, cold and hot? Have a look if the CTS is OK-ish

[Ian T]

My CTS matches the thermostat body temperature pretty well (compared to an infrared thermometer).

[DABgp]

1) Cold start- starts within a second or 2 no problems
2) Cold restart (within seconds of switch off) - starts within a second or 2 no problems
3) Hot restart (within seconds of switch off) - starts within a second or 2 no problems
4) Hot restart (an hour after switch off) - chugg chugg chugg chugg chugg (repeat this for around 5-10 seconds), keep fingers crossed, consider reaching for AA card - STARTS!!!

Exactly like ours. The starting when warm rather than hot is more of an embarrassment than a problem. Seems slightly better if I floor the throttle.

[B_land]

Hot and cold start are okay but warm start took longer, engine would turn but not fire for a few seconds. I've (garage) changed the injectors, HT leads, fuel filter and spark plugs, last week, Engine starts without hesitation when warm and seems to be livelier. Cannot say what has fixed the problem but would suggest as others have found new/clean injectors have resolved their warm starting problem.

[HJ2]

that would be my guess as well.
Good that it is solved!