Hard to start when at operating temp

[whiskers]

G'Day everyone,

as the title suggests, the old girl has just started this its an AU 1 with about 270k on the clock, serviced fairly regularly.

When the car gets warm/hot (operating temp) it is hard to start even just a short trip to the shops will be enough. Yesterday I thought that I was going to be stranded at Greenslopes Hospital after a visit to a specialist, I had to drive in from the north side of Brisbane about 54k's the car sat for about one (1) hour whilst I was there.
Once it gets going not a prob no misses nothing just drives like it has always done.

Any help or suggestions would be good, I have been thinking that the coil maybe on its way out as it has never been replaced, or at the very least the plugs and leads although they were replaced about 15k ago, the battery is all good as it is cranking over really good.

Thanks in advance
Whiskers

[mik]

apparently coil pack is possible to play up when hot, have seen some threads with similar complaint and not always turned out to be coil pack, some food for thought, i recently fitted a fuel pressure gauge to my au , just so i can keep an eye on it, i found on mine(au2 xr6) at 148k on the odo the fuel pump is a pumping a little less pressure than specified in the manual, i also found when the motor is hot the pressure is less again (slightly), i can`t explain this, the only thing i can think of is there is a little more leakage from the injectors when they are hot (perhaps some one a bit smarter than i will confirm this or not ), next time you park the car hot and start it hot let it sit for a min with the ignition on build fuel pressure, then try to start it see if that helps, in the old days they could hook a car up to a tune up machine and check coils , plugs leads etc, i would check easy stuff first battery terminals clean, if ok check fuel pressure and coil pack, i`m not sure but i think old fuel pumps might be at fault more often than we realise.....only my hunch, good luck let us know what you find.

[whiskers]

thanks mik but I'm pretty sure its not fuel related. as it done the same thing yesterday arvo when it was stone cold, and once it started I could smell the fuel that had not been burnt.

[whiskers]

any other suggestions for this guys, I just put a new set of leads on Monday and hey presto it's still doing the same thing. its very annoying

[Whoosha]

By not starting do you mean its just keeps cranking and wont fire up ? or goes like it has a flat battery ?
Either way it sounds like a coil pack or timing issue. coil packs are cheap on fleabay atm $110 ish deliverd ,just got one for #2 sons SR

[White_sr_taxi]

I thought mine was the only one that did that, it cranks over just fine, just bloody hard to catch, must be me coils. what good coil packs are there? is it easy to put on yourself?

[whiskers]

yep just keeps cranking over for about 6 or 7 cranks and then I release the key and try again and this time it fires up fairly quickly. I done a ecu reset the other day after I fitted the new leads as well just in case there were some codes that could be cleared. it has also done it when cold but that was only once though a couple of weeks ago, it started all of a sudden.
The battery seems fine as it gives it a good turn over not laboring

[whiskers]

Originally Posted by White_sr_taxi

I thought mine was the only one that did that, it cranks over just fine, just bloody hard to catch, must be me coils. what good coil packs are there? is it easy to put on yourself?

I got a quote yesterday from auto barn for a coil pack $118.00 but this is for a series 1 and I believe its only a couple of bolts.

[White_sr_taxi]

i think it should be the same for my series 2, i remember doing the leads and i couldnt be bothered taking off the induction system lol that was fun :P does MSD do coil packs? what brand did Autobarn offer?

[whiskers]

I didn't ask them that, but the part number for this particular one is C185.
I have also just finished ringing around bursons/coventry quoted $118.90 ford was $170.15 repco $150.00 and didn't bother with supercheap cause they get parts from coventry I think the series 2 have a different setup for the posts, the series 1 have like spark plug ends this is the one that you need
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/FORD-FALCON-A...3286.m20.l1116

[Dauphin]

Although this may be down to a coil pack, I thoughtI'd share that I read in Popular Mechanics mag that this can happen due to fuel stuck somewhere in the syste, and it clogs up something.

It said you can hold your foot down on the accellerator when starting the car and it puts it into a mode that clears it to allow it to start. It happens to my car about once every 15 starts and this method always works.

[whiskers]

Cool Dauphin I'll give that a go although i just ran some injector cleaner through the system.

[whiskers]

just an up date for all those interested. I ended up putting a new coil pack onto the car on thursday, (had a small prob but fixed it with help) We went to Toowoomba yesterday and she just drove like it was new again, what a difference new leads and coil pack make.

We stopped at the golden arches at Gatton I think, anyway I was a bit apprehensive about starting the car when we got back in, but bugger me. All was just perfect, she started first go and then again once we were up in the clouds it just breezed all the way up the range.

So looks like it's all fixed, thanks to all who helped.

Cheers

[Dauphin]

Thanks for the update. That's good to know, something to keep in mind if it begins to struggle to start quite frequently. Do you know what the typical life of a coil pack may be, and if you can buy higher performance ones?

[Whoosha]

Good to here Whiskers...........
Got 165000 ks from the pulgs and coil from #2 sons S3 all city driving and all original ford stuff , didnt think that was to bad . I got a aftermarket coil pack but couldn't source a HP one

[whiskers]

I just replaced the factory fitted one after 10 years and 269.000 k's I don't know about any high performance ones I got mine from bursons/conventry for $104 (tax free) and this is the second set of leads and I have just changed the plugs 5k ago and that was the second set as well so I'm pretty happy about all that.
cheers

[GK]

Glad you got it sorted whiskers!

GK