hard starting disco?

[casterbased]

got a few questions

ive got the last of the la disco's with a 3.9, great car

a couple of months ago it started to take ages to start, you would turn on the ignition key and have to wait like a tdi before you start it as the fuel pump primed. if you tried to start it straight away, it may crank for 5-6 sec before starting roughly. i could live with this.

then one day its started playing up more after my mate used it. it would not idle at times, and would randomly seem to cut out for a split second and flash the engine warning light for that split second cut out. my mate is a fat bastard and i thought he might of kicked the loom and ecu, so i played with the loom, and was able to cause it to play up twice, i unplugged the loom and checked it, no probs and i can no longer make it stop.
also i have a bad fuel vapour odour more often when i have an empty tank.

on one occassion it cut out completely, and would start but then stall, the fuel pump sounded like it was sucking air, but it had fuel in the tank? after turning the key back and fourth over and over it primed up and we were off again.

now i find if i turn the ignition on the warning light comes on for a split second, i wait for the pump to stop priming, then turn the keyy off again then turn the ignition on again the warning light doesn't come on and it doesn't seem to play up, until today the bloody bitch of a thing

[DEFENDERZOOK]

do you have the means to connect a fuel pressure guage to it?


also does it have a coolant temp sensor?

if these are ok it could be the alternator......these cause all sorts of problems you wouldnt relate them to....

[LandyAndy]

Hi
Could be a faulty fuel pressure regulator,allowing fuel pressure in the fuel rail to bleed off back to the tank.
Andrew

[shaunp]

3 thing make them bleed fuel pressure when stopped ,crook reg, crook pump or leaky injectors.

[PhilipA]

Just a way out one . if your mate hit the tank on something its not unknown for the hose up from the pump to crack when it gets old.
If you look at it you will see that the pump slides up and down on rails to allow for being hit.
Reagdrs Philip A

[Quiggers]

I think there are quite a few separate issues which have arrived, possibly coincidentally, at the same time.

Long crank starting, in my experience has been due to grubby injectors. When I got my 93 V8 a few years ago it would take maybe 5-6 seconds to fire and very roughly, one pot at a time, and it ran very rich.

I eventually had the injectors done and had a decent tune, which cured said problems.

I'd also agree with others, like fuel feed and pressure, but a good tune up wouldn't hurt at any time. This donk seems to just go and go, beautiful little piece of archaic engineering....must've been the ducks guts in its day, way back when...

GQ

[casterbased]

cheers for the ideas style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif ,
ill work my way through them to tryto fix the issues