Sometimes car starts fine...sometime car cranks a lot before starting

Maintenance/Repairs
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21

rrr-rrr-rrr still gets used a lot around here.

1 Like
22

Heh heh. My Morris Minor would go rrrrr but not start so then there was no rrrr when I pushed it and popped the clutch a couple times, just vrooom. :crazy_face: Donā€™t mean to be picky.

23

Before there was there a final rrrr, was there a series of increasingly spaced rrrs?

Gotta love a car than can be push or roll started with an almost dead battery!

24

No, battery fine, engine shot or carb. If I knew then what I know now . . . I might still have it.

25

For me, that was a 1947 International Harvester 3/4 ton panel truck I was given (in a non-running state) when I was in high school. It was towed away, still in a non-running state, when I went to college.

Given that my 1979 Toyota 4X4 truckā€™s frame broke in about 2007, I doubt that a 1947 IH would have made it until now, living in WI and MN.

26

So weā€™ve decided to ā€œwatchā€ the ā€œproblemā€. I did invest in a bottle of fuel injector cleaner but did not put it in the tank. We didnā€™t use a different gas station either thinking we may have just gotten a bad tank of gas. The problem hasnā€™t really happened again. Next time I bring the car in for an oil change, Iā€™ll see if thereā€™s anything they can test. Iā€™ll keep everyone posted. Happy holiday

27

Sounds like youā€™ve got the long-cranking problem under control. Iā€™ve been getting a few of those on my Corolla which has been laid up for the past 2 years due to Covid complications. In my case the long cranks are caused b/c the fuel rail has lost pressure due to the car sitting unused for several weeks. It takes 10-15seconds before the fuel pump has primed the fuel rail to full pressure again. This problem can manifest itself on daily drivers too, if, when the engine is off, fuel leaks from the fuel rail into the gas tank (faulty fuel pump check valve) or into the engine (faulty injector).

28

Yeah Geroge_San_Jose1 while it seems the problem made have resolved itself, I still keep my fingers crossed every time I turn the key that the car will start. Not a great way to live but not much I can do to definitively diagnose the problem until one day when the car doesnā€™t start despite all the tips and tricks in this thread. Happy holiday

29

Been there, done that. A few years ago my Corolla wouldnā€™t crank reliably. So when I drove it anywhere, I had to first find a place that I could park facing downhill ā€¦ lol ā€¦ a coasting start was my backup method, which I indeed had to use several times.

30

Them were the daysā€¦I had a VW Beetle in the early 80s that I push started more than once.

| George_San_Jose1
April 18 |

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2robertc:

I still keep my fingers crossed every time I turn the key that the car will start. Not a great way to live

Been there, done that. A few years ago my Corolla wouldnā€™t crank reliably. So when I drove it anywhere, I had to first find a place that I could park facing downhill ā€¦ lol ā€¦ a coasting start was my backup method, which I indeed had to use several times.

31

I presume that was the rear-engine Beetle. The good thing about those cars is they were light-weight enough you could do a push start, even in a level parking lot. Just push on the A pillar to get it moving, then jumping in.

1 Like
32

Exactly:):slight_smile:

| George_San_Jose1
April 18 |

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2robertc:

I had a VW Beetle in the early 80s that I push started more than once.

I presume that was the rear-engine Beetle. The good thing about those cars is they were light-weight enough you could do a push start, even in a level parking lot. Just push it on the A pillar to get it moving, then jumping in.