My Ranger has just 32,000 miles and lately I have noticed that when the engine has not run for 30 minutes or longer it takes 3 seconds or more of cranking to get it to start and then struggles a bit to get to idle. It turns right over as it always has when it has been running. Ford wants to charge me over a hundred dollars just to look at it. It just seems that with such low miles this shouldn’t be happening…any ideas on the cause? thanks in advance
Next time turn the key to run for a count of 5, off, run again and count to 5. Then try to start it. If this fixes the problem, it is probably a fuel pressure problem. You might want to just change the fuel filter now. If a new filter does not fix a pressure problem, you probably need a fuel pump.
I have done what you suggested at a service advisors recommedation and it did work. I will change the filter as a cheaper measure and go from there, thanks.