# Hard start when warm



## Phillyp (Jul 7, 2005)

I have a '98 Altima (2.5l, 175k miles) that I've been having a lot of problems starting lately. When the engine is cold, everything is fine. But if the motor is warm, or it's warm/sunny outside, it takes a long time to start. It turns over just fine, and eventually will start, but it's definitely not happy. Also, when it eventually does start, it takes a couple of seconds for the car to maintain a consistent idle. My guess is that car is getting too much gas and flooding. I say this because when it finally does start, you can distinctively smell gas and there's a little bit of black fumes coming out of the exhaust. That being said, I do depress the accelerator a couple times during start-up because that's the only way it eventually starts. Once the car is running though, it runs perfect.

No SES codes are present.

Any ideas? Anything I can checkout? I greatly appreciate the help; this is a very frustrating problem.

Thanks
Philip


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## smj999smj (Jan 1, 2006)

There are a couple of things. Improper base idle setting or a dirty or faulty IACV-AAC valve could cause this. Worn secondary ignition componants (plugs, wire, cap, rotor) can also cause this. One thing I would check, though, is for fuel injector leakdown. One or more injectors can be leaking fuel into the cylinder when the engine is not running and will cause the engine to flood when you try to start it. This can be tested with a fuel pressure gauge installed. Pressurize the system by turning the key "on" and clamp the fuel hoses before the pressure gauge and after the fuel rail and observe. If you notice a fairly quick or steady dropoff of pressure, you have a leak. Otherwise, the fuel pressure should stay fairly the same for at least 20 minutes. If one injector is leaking, the others probably aren't far behind, so I would recommend replacing as a set. And, since you have the gauge installed, check the fuel pressure and make sure the regulator is working and not keeping pressure too high.


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