Hard Starting

[BigWaldo27]

Hello, thanx for reading my threading and hopefully responding. My '97 XLT is giving me some problems starting. When I first start the vehicle in the beginning of the day it starts up fine. THen for the rest of the day it will start fine if started up approximately 10 minutes within the amount of time it was last turned off. If the vehicle sits shut off for more than the 10 minutes then it will take more cranks to start. It can crank up to 7-8 times before turning over and starting up. I got 70,000 miles on a five year old truck. Let me know what you think, Thanks, BigWaldo27

 

[Meth713]

Mine is doing the EXACT same thing.... 97 XLT.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Also when it starts up, there is a hard to describe sound... almost diesel-like.

goes away after its warmed up, and doesnt do it at anything but idle.

 

[jazz_master221]

that sounds like your timing chain making that dieseling noise at start up....mines does that if i let it sit for 3 or 4 days with out starting ......one service manager told me that was normal but i would take it to the dealer if it does it on every startup tell them about the 01m01 tsb..i poured a pint of oil stabilizer in my 4.0sohc 97 x sport...see if that works ..sure smoothed that engine out but it will be couple of days before i know if it will solve my noise on a cold strartup

 

[Meth713]

i got a subscription to alldata.com (excellent resource) and found out about that.... thank you

anyone know anything about the starting problem?

 

[Meth713]

my ford dealership is pretty cool.

they did the 00m01 TSB...fixed that problem.

then they did the sticking throttle body TSB

and now they backordered another one, the one about the fuel lines too close to the battery so people try to jumpstart with those and set their car on fire....

and my radiator was busted. So I had them fix that.... and the belt, and serpentine belt tensioner.

and i had them winterize it....
930 bucks. owie!

I never realized how much a difference the serpentine belt tensioner made. it ran slightly rough... now its silky smooth. I likey.

about the hard starting when warm problem, i did a little investigating, and when it was warmed up and i was about to start it, i pushed the fuel check thing on the engine (while the key was in run, so the pump should have pressurized it) and nothing came out. Then i cranked it a little and some air came out.

Any idea why my car would only do this when its warm, and start perfectly when cold ?