Only got the Zed on Saturday and already its playing up! When I'm starting it from cold it takes up to 20 mins to get it to eventually start.

It's coughs and rocks about As if its trying to fire and its smells really strongly of fuel whilst trying 2 start. Does the 300 have a cold start mechanism?

 

The car runs sweet when its started and warm and starts straight away again when its been off for a short amount of time.

 

I'm confused.com, had to insure my old celica again to get to work this morning :/

 

Any ideas on where I should be checking 1st?

Try a Error Code check and see if anything comes up...

This is how to do it....

http://www.ttzd.com/tech/diagnostictech.html

 

HTH

Dave

first thing i,d check would be the plugs

maybe engine coolant temp sensor - mine has been on way out for a while car stunk of fuel when first started in the morning and was spulttering for the first few miles, changed it last week, runs spot on now

 

the sensors like a choke . cold coolant = more fuel

When my car did this it was the compression.

Put new plugs in it and ran a diagnostic and still no joy. I'm hoping it's not gonna be low compression as I only bought the car 2 days ago!

When i took the plugs out all of them were sooted up and fouled pretty bad. When you try to start the engine initially, it nearly starts then drowns itself in fuel :/

 

What controls the amount of fuel it gets from a cold start?

Never realised that the car has an Apexi AFC Neo so I've restored it to factory settings and it seems to be starting better now still think maybe a temperature sensor or Air regulator may need changed.

 

So I'm hoping its not low on compression but I've ordered a tester to give it a check over anyway :)

As a precaution a compression test is a good idea because cold starting problems is often related to low compression, over fueling is less of a problem when the engine is cold, however poor cambelt timing can also cause starting issues which will be worse when the engine is cold so even if the figures are low the reason maybe cambelt timing rather than worn or damaged pistons / rings /bores.

 

Good luck and keep posting any feed back

 

Jeff TT

Thanks for that Jeff, is there any way of telling if low compression is down to the timing or damage without basically taking the engine apart?

It's starting every time now just need to give it about an inch of throttle when I turn it over and it starts straight away, all be it a bit lumpy for the first 5-10 secs.

clean the contacts on the yellow plug (2 wires) it is on the top aluminin rad pipe coming out of the engine also when runnig do the screw driver test a long screw driver on the top of each injector you should hear clicks when you put your ear to it

 

also check and tighten all the fuel pipe clips

Thought everything was going ok until that freeze last night came out to it this morning and took forever to get it started from cold.

 

Have to end up taking the fuel pump fuse out to drop the pressure and free up the plugs of fuel and start it with a little bit of throttle to catch it straight away before it floods with fuel again.

 

 

The plugs have been changed I've also changed the ECU to a standard one to make sure its not being over fuelled/mis-timed.. I'm totally stumped, ideally I could be doing with a conzult but 200 miles to the nearest place that has the facility I think lol

You don't need a conzult to do the basic error code check that daves-zed posted the link to, so do that 1st it's only 10 mins.

What plugs did you fit?

 

Did it start fine before you changed the ECU and plugs?

 

Does the AFC have a small sub loom with it so that if you unplug the main harness, you then join the sub harness so as to do away with the AFC all together?

 

Am always weary when peeps buy a motor and it has gadgets fitted, they fiddle with the knobs and before yer know it problems start. IMO they should be set up by a garage and left alone thereafter lol

smithy

I ran the OBD and everything came back ok. I changed the plugs from the colder NGK 11c's to standard NGK 11's.

It's had problems starting from cold since I got the car but after doing all that its been better up until that frost last night. I've set the AFC off so it technically shouldn't be interfering. I only started messing with the gadgets on it to get it closer to standard to try and get it to start from cold :/

"Have to end up taking the fuel pump fuse out to drop the pressure and free up the plugs of fuel and start it with a little bit of throttle to catch it straight away before it floods with fuel again"

 

and that works ?

 

..could it be a shot fuel pressure regulator, or maybe a fault with the fuel pump control module,or a combination of both ?

 

doesn´t explain why it starts okay when warm though

 

Like Grimmer said , check the temp sensor, not just optically though, test for the following readings:

 

at 20c (68F) resistance 2.1 - 2.9

at 50c (122F) resistance 0.68 - 1.00

at 80c (176F) resistance 0.30 - 0.33

 

:)