Starting Issue

[Flint123]

I've noticed that slowly, over perhaps six months, the car stakes a little longer to start each time.

It's crept up from instant to about two seconds to fire up.

Two seconds doesn't sound like a lot but there's something wrong somewhere. When it fires up it then runs 100%. It's only done 35000 miles.

Any ideas ?

[Steve Q]

The first two things I'd look at is the battery, when was it last changed? The life expectancy of a battery is 5-7 years. If it's getting nearer the 6-7 year mark I'd recommend a battery tray from Halfords or similar. If the battery is ok then my next question would be to look at when the spark plugs and ht leads were last changed. 

[Flint123]

Thanks Steve.

It's that many years since I had a battery problem that the thought of it never crossed my mind.🙄

That'll be my first port of call.

Cheers,

Ian.

[Magnet]

Hello Ian, 

How often does the car get used, and what is its typical journey when it does? 
I go along with Steve’s suggestion of getting the battery checked as a basic first port of call/elimination. Halfords and new batteries if it does need one?? 
If the car is seldom used, then I would be taking it for a minimum of a 20 mile run before having the battery tested, to ensure it has a fair degree of charge before it is tested. 
Kind regards,

Gareth

[Flint123]

Thanks Gareth.

It doesn't get used every day, but I did think I did enough for charging purposes; however, I'm doing a good 200 mile run this week, so I'll hold off any testing till after that.

Ian.

[Flint123]

The battery tested out OK, so it's into the auto electrician's tomorrow.

 

[Steve Q]

3 hours ago, Flint123 said:

The battery tested out OK, so it's into the auto electrician's tomorrow.

 

Glad the battery was ok. Please keep us posted on how you get on with the auto electrician. Let's hope it's something straight forward. 

[Flint123]

The auto-electrician gave it an absolute 100% fault free clean bill of health 🙂. He commented that it was very unusual for that to be the case on a ten year old car !

The local garage man recommends a fuel additive to give the injectors a clean (plus give it some high revs) as the next step.

So we'll do that and see what happens now ..............