Warm Startup Problems..

[thesorter]

My 1980 bimmer 320i starts fine on cold starts. however on a warm start it has a lot of problems getting going. The battery and electrical seem fine...it seems like it has more to do with the timing or fuel supply? I know very little about car mechanics...any ideas out there. Thanks.

[TheDon7719]

Ttt

[mehumming]

used: when did your timing change?
how many starts have you made with that starter?
Many Auto Electrical Mechanics love repairing starter motors, they make a living out of it...
i Had a car that was always hard to start cause it was never serviced. I didn`t care for this vechile it would always get hot then boil, drian the battery flat, refill the water and jump start and we were off another 8 klms flat out till our next pitt stop.
The motor was down two cylinders bent valves, cracked head, faulty alternatorand much more.
no way i ways speeding money on this 1000cc Mazda Van .
Anyway it wouldn`t start because there was something not operating efectivly...
1 valves
2 battery
3 ignition
there is a coil boost start terminal on many cars which delivers full current to the ciol when starting,, it's controlled by the starter, when cranking the voltage to other parts of the vechiles electrical systems are lowered due to the large amounts drawn by the starter . some starters have a terminal designed for this function others do not . its striaght forward to install if starting becomes a problem to the ignition....
When cranking, positive voltage will appear at the electrical starters motor,, From that piont a wire is connected and feeds a 'feild' coil on a relay.
(other side of the coil to ground-)
The relay will operate its contacts in the cranking position. These contacts allow you to supply the Coil with full current whilst cranking, From battery + thru relay contacts to coil Positve+..
make sure the relay energizes only when cranking Happy Cranking

[325eXTATIC]

Hello and welcome to the board first!

Okay, when it comes to determining what your starting problem, the two major approaches are as follows.

Fire: Are the spark plugs receiving enough voltage to arc and ignite the air/fuel mixture?
The easiest test for that would be to turn the engine off, open the hood, remove 1 spark plug boot, remove that spark plug, insert it back into the boot until contact is re-established. Then put the spark plug onto the top of the valve cover or some other exposed metal, then (and here is the REALLY important part) WITHOUT TOUCHING the plug or the spark plug boot, have someone else crank the engine while you observe weather the spark plug does its job or not. You should see a pretty significant and noticeable blue spark every second or 2...
If you DO see a spark (sometimes it might be necessary to do this part in the shade, if it is particularly bright outside) then you most likely have good spark. If you do NOT see a noticeable spark, you may want to start your diagnosis with a Crank Position Sensor (this part reads where the engines crankshaft is to determine when to send the next spark), or Coil, as well as the standard Tune-Up stuff like Plug Wires, Distributor Cap and Rotor.

Fuel: To be honest, this is not my forte, I don't like dealing with the fuel system too much, but the basics come down to this... We most likely know that we are/are not receiving Spark based on the tests done above. Before I start telling tales out of school (so to speak) I will simply say that my testing methods for fuel delivery are haphazard at best, and there are other people with better suggestions, and as a result, I will HOPE that someone like Nukeduster or Starmavin... someone with more experience on this side of things, picks up where I leave off...

Hope this is at least a START to getting your issues resolved!

Josh W.