B
blurp
Hi all,
I'm hoping to get some direction as to what and where to test with the
purpose of getting to a diagnosis on a problem with my 2001 S40 1.9T
(auto with about 240K).
Since I've had this car it's been quite reliable and has had few
problems (except the recently fixed turn-signal issue). About a month
ago it began getting a little harder to start. The starter motor would
turn but the engine wouldn't catch for a few seconds. Over the past
several weeks this time before starting has been getting longer.
A few observations:
1. The hard starting happens always when the engine is cold and about
50% of the time when it's hot.
2. When it cranks for a long time (5 seconds) before catching there's
a strong smell of gasoline
3. The starter motor cranks hard and steady, there's no sign of weak
battery.
4. It has not yet failed to start or stalled out while running.
5. Once it starts it doesn't idle smoothly insofar as it seems to
'miss' every now and again and give a little shudder. No noise, just a
very short gap in the otherwise even idle.
What I've done to make it worse
A couple of weeks ago I had a driveway to work in so I picked up some
spark plugs thinking they might be the problem. Unfortunately I
couldn't find a gapping tool OR the appropriate gap specifications for
this car so I just swapped them anyway because the old plugs were in
pretty bad shape (the plastic around the annode was almost entirely
worn away and blackened). Since that time the idle has worsened and
there have been more misses at highway speed. I suppose that when I
address this (does anyone have the right spark gap measurement for
this car? I can't find it in VADIS) I'll need to use new plugs again.
A few more observations:
6. The tach shows idling RPMs a bit low, looks like approx. 600rpm.
7. The 4 spark plugs are fed by two ordinary wires and two that have a
sealed box just above the plug socket. In researching them on VADIS I
found that the springs inside the sockets were supposed to protrude
5mm when disconnected from the spark plug but these did not:they were
compressed to even with or lower than the socket edge.
So if that information makes the problem obvious to anyone then that's
great but more likely you might have suggestions on what to test or
inspect to work towards a conclusion.
Whatever you've got I'll take with thanks!
Cheers,
blurp
I'm hoping to get some direction as to what and where to test with the
purpose of getting to a diagnosis on a problem with my 2001 S40 1.9T
(auto with about 240K).
Since I've had this car it's been quite reliable and has had few
problems (except the recently fixed turn-signal issue). About a month
ago it began getting a little harder to start. The starter motor would
turn but the engine wouldn't catch for a few seconds. Over the past
several weeks this time before starting has been getting longer.
A few observations:
1. The hard starting happens always when the engine is cold and about
50% of the time when it's hot.
2. When it cranks for a long time (5 seconds) before catching there's
a strong smell of gasoline
3. The starter motor cranks hard and steady, there's no sign of weak
battery.
4. It has not yet failed to start or stalled out while running.
5. Once it starts it doesn't idle smoothly insofar as it seems to
'miss' every now and again and give a little shudder. No noise, just a
very short gap in the otherwise even idle.
What I've done to make it worse
A couple of weeks ago I had a driveway to work in so I picked up some
spark plugs thinking they might be the problem. Unfortunately I
couldn't find a gapping tool OR the appropriate gap specifications for
this car so I just swapped them anyway because the old plugs were in
pretty bad shape (the plastic around the annode was almost entirely
worn away and blackened). Since that time the idle has worsened and
there have been more misses at highway speed. I suppose that when I
address this (does anyone have the right spark gap measurement for
this car? I can't find it in VADIS) I'll need to use new plugs again.
A few more observations:
6. The tach shows idling RPMs a bit low, looks like approx. 600rpm.
7. The 4 spark plugs are fed by two ordinary wires and two that have a
sealed box just above the plug socket. In researching them on VADIS I
found that the springs inside the sockets were supposed to protrude
5mm when disconnected from the spark plug but these did not:they were
compressed to even with or lower than the socket edge.
So if that information makes the problem obvious to anyone then that's
great but more likely you might have suggestions on what to test or
inspect to work towards a conclusion.
Whatever you've got I'll take with thanks!
Cheers,
blurp