Hi All,

Friends of mine have been using my EF for the past few years and now ive got it back im fixing a few of the issues that appeared, first being the transmission that looks like it was the inhibitor switch. The next thing on the list is hard starting when hot. Generally it starts strait away when cold but if you leave it for a while when hot it will crank and crank and eventually stumble into life. If you crank it for a few seconds, stop, crank it again it normally starts all right. Ive tried cycling the key a few times first and it appears to help sometimes but not others but its hard to tell.

What should I test first? compression when hot? fuel pressure ect? It does have a bit of a miss at idle when its warm too. Im thinking maybe crank shaft position sensor? The fuel pump was done 10 years ago and 12 months ago one of the injectors was causing a horrible idle so i stuck a second hand one in but if i can avoid blowing $100 bucks on new injectors ide like to.

I have done a bit of searching but most people say its coil or dizzy module which obviously is an el issue and not ef.

Also, occasionally it smokes terribly (thick blue smoke) when you first pull off for a few hundred meters but the rest of time time, even if you let it idle for 20 minuets, it doesnt give a puff what so ever. I did put thin oil (10-40) and lifter treatment in last change to try and shut up one of the lifters so maybe that didnt help although I think it did it before. Ive normally run it on 20-50 before the lifters got loud but i thought thin oil may be worth a try. The car has done 300,000 kms.

Thanks for your help, all opinions would be appreciated,

Jay

When was the last time the O2 sensor was changed?

Check you map sensor.

As for the hard to start when hot, I would suggest the coil pack.

I had the same problem with Na fairlane not starting when hot. I changed the coil and it hasn't been a problem since.

I doubt if the o2 sensor has ever been done, it probably wouldn't be a bad starting point and if nothing else is obvious I will do it. the fuel economy doesn't seem great either.

Could the map cause hard starting and d**k transmission kick down as sometimes it refuses to kick down , even if its laboring up a steep hill doing 60 in 4th or is the kick down managed by the tps?

I did a KOEO test and got codes for speed sensor, inhibitor switch and Performance Indicator Light (??) but I doubt any of these would cause my issues. I couldn't seem to get the KOER test to work.

I have a spare coil pack at home I can swap on the weekend to rule that out. In the past the crankshaft position sensor crapped out and I put a 2nd hand one on so it may be playing up, but is it common for these to cause hot starting / running issues? From memory one of the bolts on the crank sensor was stripped too so maybe its moved too far away.

Thanks,

Jay