I'm starting to pull out what I have left of my hair

Issue started when the wife went shopping and I get a call saying the car won't start, turn the key and nothing, everything else is working, lights, dash etc, so I'm guessing at the time starter motor / Solenoid. Eventually after repeatedly turning the car it jumps into life and starts.

Having a search around and find this can be caused by the connections/plunger in the solenoid, so I get a new set and swap them out. So far so good.

Then it gets to tuning over but not starting, go through the priming routine and this helps, however leaving it standing for a while and it wont start again, just cranks over.

Changed fuel filter, air bleed valve, injector o-Rings and copper washers and then after finding a leak on the FPR change the diaphragm on that. All is happy in the world.....

1 week later and I'm back to both issues!!! Most of the time the car will crank over and starting is pretty hard, some times it wont crank at all, and a handy hit on the starter motor with a hammer solves that part

Stripping down the starter motor the brushes are pretty worn so I am thinking a new starter is needed, but any ideas as the the reason it has trouble starting when it does crank over?

Everything is good when the engine is running, so I think this might rule out the Fuel pump, is there an easy way to get a pressure gauge to test the fuel pressure anyway?

What else might I be missing? Could a knackered starter causes issues with starting even if it is cranking over?

Thanks,

Yes, quite common, bad starter will disturb the crank sensor signal and not let it start even if it cranks well... get a new or a known good starter dont mess with your's cos it might be in vain ... i've seen this many times

Lazy starter that is.fit a new 1 and your problem will go.i 4t it was fuel related on mine but then found starter to be the issue

crank sensor could be contaminated from fuel pressure reg leaking onto it

Replaced the starter motor, starts 1st time now Who would have thought it, although it does turn over much quicker now than it did before!!

sierrafery said:

Yes, quite common, bad starter will disturb the crank sensor signal and not let it start even if it cranks well... get a new or a known good starter dont mess with your's cos it might be in vain ... i've seen this many times

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Even if the starter turns the engine over, a fault condition could exist in the windings (short circuit turns) which places an excessive load on the battery causing the voltage supplied to the engine ECU to fall below 10 volts while it's cranking. That could probably mean that the ECU would fail to work correctly, if at all.

brian47 said:

Even if the starter turns the engine over, a fault condition could exist in the windings (short circuit turns) which places an excessive load on the battery causing the voltage supplied to the engine ECU to fall below 10 volts while it's cranking. That could probably mean that the ECU would fail to work correctly, if at all.

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i agree... that's another possible reason, though in 3 cases of 4 i've found "noisy crank signal" fault code logged and the voltage didnt drop below 10 while cranking but new starter fixed it