1999 Durango hard to start after sitting overnight

[bfigg]

My 1999 Dodge Durango takes forever to start after sitting for a long period of time. I have the problem mostly in the morning after the truck sits over night.

An aquaintance who works at a dealership said it sounds like the pressure in the fuel system bleeds down slowly as it sits and needs to get re-pressurized again when I try to start it. That kind of makes sense but I'm not sure which components to check or how to check them. I don't notice any gas dripping from under the car and I don't smell any fumes which I would think would happen if it was losing pressure somehow.

Has anybody else had this same problem and found a fix? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[hundahunta]

more than likely if is cause by a leaking oring seal in the fuel pump...

[jtd51]

This sounds very similar to what my 2002 SLT+ was doing. "The longer I let it sit, the harder it was to start". Started well if attempted within an hour of shutdown. Also started well if left to sit several days. But started hard (needed excessive cranking) if left sitting about 12 hours or so.

Final solution was: #5 fuel injector had a slow leak. Replacing it fixed things just fine. Since the fuel rail stays at 49psi when you shut it down, a bad fuel injector can allow gas to "dribble" into the combustion chamber for a while. If you try to start it with all that raw fuel in there, you get a hard start. If you let it sit for a few days ("a long time") the raw fuel evaporates away, and you can get an OK start. Trying to start it relatively quickly after a shutdown means not much raw gas was allowed to accumulate in the chamber yet, so you get a normal felling start.

This was what my problem was. Has run well for a year now. (I had to help the dealership diagnose the problem. They could not figure it out.)

[x3mtm]

hi..i had the same problem...after it sat overnight or for even couple of hours...it was hard for it to turn on...i thought it was the remote starter i had installed in..but it was the battery that was leaking..so i changed it and now it turns on perfectly. might wanna check it out...u never now..L8R.

[TomThomas]

I have this exact problem. My question is would it be reasonable for me to buy an injector and start swapping injectors until I find the leaky one? I would swap the new one to cylinder #1, then swap #1 to #2, etc. until the leak didn't show. Is it relatively easy to change them out? Any detail would be appreciated.