Trouble Starting

[bnavarre]

I have a 1996 Saturn SL1 with 118,000 miles. For the past four years or so (about 65,000 miles) I have had trouble with starting the car after it is hot. For instance, if I drive the car to work in the morning (25 miles interstate), wait 20 minutes and try to start the car again, it will almost never start on the first try. Normally, it will start on the second try and rarely requires a third attempt. The battery was replaced three years ago and really never affected the situation.

Any advice?

[sierrap615]

read my other post, the ECT also sometimes causes hard starts.

[lntegraLover]

fuel filter? i heard my friend talking about that

[bnavarre]

Changed ECT...no change in start up occurances.

[sierrap615]

Originally Posted by bnavarre

I have a 1996 Saturn SL1 with 118,000 miles.

wait a minute, in your other post you say you have a 97. which is correct? if its 97, your fuel pump is the problem, almost the entire 97 model year had the problem - http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/sho...threadid=1516&

if it is a 96, go back and check the spark plug gap, it should be 0.040 not 0.060. saturn tryed the larger gap in 96 but it caused driveablty problems. so they whent back to the smaller gap, all years s-series including 96 should be gaped to 0.040, some manuals are still outdated.

[bnavarre]

Sorry...typo....it is a 1997 model. Should it be replaced and what's approximate cost if needed?

[sierrap615]

try turning the key to on but wait about 10-15 seconds to crank the engine, this should give the pump enough time to prime the system. if it really bugs you waiting that 10 seconds, you can replace the pump, but i don't know the cost.