Why Won't My Car Start in the Morning?

[Negative Creep]

If you've read the grumpy old man thread maybe you can help prevent me and my car from from having a major falling out. Basically, it is a right pig to start first thing in the morning. It turns over, it rattles, it shakes, it almost fires but just will not go. Today it took 15 minutes of trying, swearing and getting very annoyed indeed I got it running.

 

Now here's the thing, once you've got it going or it's hot then it runs fine. Furthermore, I leave it outside all day at work and it starts on the button. Yet it just doesn't like the dark so try it in the morning and it's nothing but grief. Yesterday I gave up and rung the AA, waited half hour whereupon it started the first time he tried it. Queue me looking like a plank.

 

So any idea what it could be? I dropped it into a garage who adjusted the timing, mixture and choke. It being winter here I'm guessing the frost is getting in the ignition system? I've tried spraying WD40 round the dizzy cap tonight to see if it makes any difference. Could also be the plugs but then wouldn't that always cause problems?

 

Cheers

[Dukestar25]

If it's the Cortina, Does it still have the Automatic choke?

These were crap when new and if yours still has it, it's probably time to do a manual choke conversion on it. Apparently not too difficult to do and would make starting it a whole lot easier...

[Rusty Pelican]

Had a car do this for almost a year , changed almost everything except the coil . guess what it was

Yep the coil , fine after fitting a new one , no idea why it should do this , symptoms exactly the same as yours

[mouseflakes]

Check the plug gaps - they might have opened up.

 

After I put a R11 1400 in the back of my R10 I had the same symptoms (difficulty starting in the morning - fine all other times) but I'd become so obsessed with idea that the tilt of the R11 inlet manifold (R11 FWD, engine canted back) was upsetting the float level that I overlooked the obvious, simple things.

 

When I did get around to setting the gaps, that fixed the problem .

 

I imagine their operation is temperature sensitive - after a cold night it's asking a lot to get the spark across an over-large gap. A small increase in temperature makes a big difference.

[Albert Ross]

Fords have quite large bores in relation to most other cars. One problem with this is ring sealing when the engine is cold. Try a Mini 1000 in the same weather. It'll crack straight up. Do when a compression check when it's stone cold, and if it's low across the board, then there's a hint to your problem. Then, get it started if you can, and get it hot. Then do another compression check. You might find quite a discrepancy between the readings and factory specifications.

 

I might, of course, be talking out of my arse.

[Negative Creep]

Ran the battery flat trying to get it started today and was an hour late for work Need to get it to the garage tomorrow, but if I get it started it will run fine and they won't be able to find the fault. May have to ring the AA first thing just so I can get it there. Plus I need to sell it within 2 weeks. Fuckbeans.

[Richard]

One of my memories of the 1970s is the sound of distant Ford engines cranking over for ages.

[Timewaster]

I remember my dad spending 2 weeks of evenings and weekends trying to start my mum's Mk2 Escort.

He did everything you could think of, replacing the same components twice incase the first ones were duff - I even remember him grilling the spark plugs and whacking them in hot! Nothing worked.

Utterly exasperated, he went out to it one evening and the bloody thing started straight away despite churning over till the battery gave up the night before.

It was never any trouble after that.

 

And I realise this is no help to you at all. Sorry about that.

[garethj]

When I got my Pinto I put new leads, coil, dizzy cap etc on. The new plug leads weren't as good as the ones I took off, so just because you've replaced stuff, doesn't mean all is well

 

Are the plugs clean when you take them out, or oiled up? Are they all the same as each other?

[VWPowered]

id check the plugs too, wang some new leads on etc

[Station]

Mine used to take ages to start. I replaced the earth wiring, battery and serviced it, and it made a huge difference, like started as soon as the crank turned. Grounding is always missed and underestimated!

[mattblack]

Just dragging a few things up from my dim and distant memory...

 

Ballast resistor, I seeem to remember that it's actually a thick (grey?) wire in the loom on Fords of this era.

 

Correct type of coil fitted, to suit system with ballast resistor fitted.

 

Auto choke, I seem to remember the drill for starting from cold was NOT to touch the throttle as that tripped the choke off, just turn the key.

[Station]

Maplin stock resistors that are a direct swap for ballast resistors, they're about £1, I changed some on my Starion.

[whitevanman]

basic checks first

 

Point gap

cracked cap

rotor arm

plug gap and condition

earth lead....

 

if all seems well there or you replace them then try this

 

disconect the - wire from the coil, attach a seperate lead from there to the dizzy and try it...IF it fires up right away then you have a problem with the ballast resistor wire.

 

now if it doesn't fire it's most likely to be a fucked Dizzy, especially if it's a Mortorcraft one.

 

as for the auto choke either 1 or 2 pumps of the throttle before turning it over, best to try just the 1, if you don't press it the choke stays off.

 

now if that lot don't fix it then just let me know and I'll take you on to phase two

[Negative Creep]

Cheers for all the advice. Called the AA out this morning and he managed to get it started. He thinks the auto choke is incorrectly adjusted, hence won't deliver enough fuel when it's freezing cold. Taken it back to the same garage to see if they can sort it

 

Did I mention I need to sell it by the end of the month? Balls.

[pogweasel]

Is it ACTUALLY freezing cold??

[Negative Creep]

It's around the 0c mark each night, always get a frost and some ice this morning

[Negative Creep]

Well that was a busy few days! Took it back to the garage who could find nothing wrong with it beyond a slight tweak of the choke and started it first thing. Took it home and next morning - yeah you guessed it, carb flood tastic. Got it going eventually so got to work and back. Put it up for sale on Trademe and someone clicked the buy it now within 40 minutes.

 

Great so it's sold. Except I went out this morning and the battery had almost drained itself overnight. Tried jump starting from my housemate's car and promptly melted the leads. So even though the battery was under warranty I had to go and buy one from the battery place next to work as I couldn't get to the original scrapyard. So another $100 down I took the new one home, then ran that flat trying to get the flooded engine started. This then resulted in a frantic rush to get some new leads before the buyer arrived. Connected up to a twatting great diesel Hi Ace it started and of course from that point ran fine. So thanks for all the suggestions but it is almost certainly the choke

 

So the new owners turn up, take it for a test drive and are chuffed to bits. I mentioned it is very easy to flood the carb, the garage it's been to and that they should convert it to a manual. I didn't mention the grief I've had and really hope they don't have the same problem tomorrow morning, especially as we still need to do the paperwork. Still it sold in record time and I already have something suitably miserable lined up to replace it

 

Moral of the story: auto choke = fail.

[scaryoldcortina]

 

when they complain about it, send them this video