Mis firing on start up

[david campion]

Hi, I have a 56 plate 2.0t cabriolet and in the last week it has been a dog at starting in the morning, (taking a good 5-7 secs) once its started it runs perfect, it's only done 60k miles so was wondering if this is a common thing?

Dave

 

[Charlie Farley]

Do you get any EPC or MIL lamps?

 

[david campion]

If that means warning lights, then no I dont, a mechanic where I work said first thing to replace if I do anything is the spark plugs, the car (if they done it as promised) had a full service in july last year before I bought it so I cant see them needing replacing, but this is If they replaced everything

 

[david campion]

This was my dash yesterday dinner time, with the engine primed before final ignition

 

[SimonRX8]

I’m having the same on mine. 2.0 tfsi with auto box. No errors. Once started it is fine, and subsequent start ups are fine. It loops back to struggling after a couple of days so it’s more often than not during lockdown. When used daily pre lockdown it behaved fine and was happy to be left a week without use. Battery was fully charged at the start of lockdown so that shouldn’t be low. As it had been fine pre lockdown, I was thinking it wasn’t on the ignition side of things (spark plug, ignition leads) and nor battery - I had been wondering if it was just taking time to get fuel through if sat for a week. I could well be off on my trail of thought though as I’m no mechanic!! Be interested to know what it is though

 

[david campion]

That's interesting because since posting this is started without a hint of problem

 

[Charlie Farley]

This was my dash yesterday dinner time, with the engine primed before final ignition

That's normal , it's if you had the epc stay on with the starting problem I am curious about .

 

[SimonRX8]

That's normal , it's if you had the epc stay on with the starting problem I am curious about .

I know you were asking the original poster rather than me, but I do not get this light staying on. It’s odd, it’s like it doesn’t ‘catch’ properly when the starter motor is turning over. I thought it may be fuel not getting through quick enough having not been used but I tend to switch to stage one of ignition to let things prime themselves (used to having a diesel with glow plugs to let warm!), and pump the accelerator before turning on ignition and with key turned. As before, once it’s started once, it’s fine for a few days. I’m certain it’s down to minimal use but I’m sure in my case the spark plugs and ignition leads were done at last service (say August) and the battery is pretty full (done on my ctek about a month ago for full charge and condition). Ironically I have only noticed it since the battery charge but tbh that was early days in lockdown anyway

 

[Charlie Farley]

On the tfsi the fuel pump normally primes when you open the front doors, and then again when you go to ignition.
I have been experiencing a few irritating faults for a while now that only seem to revolve around the starting procedure , not running.
On random occasions, and it is very random the car takes longer to start then when it does I get an EPC fault and poor running until I restart a few times to clear the fault, car runs very well when starting normally.
From memory the problem did initially start out as poor starting on occasion such as you two chap have noted but then led to EPC fault and then a MIL lamp.
I've done all the vcds diags ,replaced everything parts that were flagged as possible failure points etc but still get it .
I went a month fault free and then bang it was back three days in a row.

 

[SimonRX8]

I can definitely hear the fuel pump prime when I open the door. Thought I would go do a test to better explain and it started on the turn of the key. Took it for a quick drive with a few stop and starts, but all fine. When it had the issue last week though I did give it a 45 ish minute drive that eve (with a little Italian tune up along the way) so hopefully that helped.

thanks for the prompt replies rob - as always.

Anyway, will stop hijacking the thread, and fingers crossed the original posters issue gets sorted. Sounds very similar to mine which I could only put down to lack of use as mine hasn’t missed a beat really for over a year (please don’t jinx it, please don’t jinx it!!!!)