Is this normal?
 

Hi everyone,

My car starts up hot just like in this video quite often, It sometimes starts up even easier, like crank crank boom. I am just wondering if this catch catch business before the vroom is normal..


The video is not my car but it starts up exactly like it.

Well, it starts and seems to idle fine for the short duration of the video.

Is this different from how it has been starting?

It has been starting like that for some 2 years now. Again this is not my car that is in the video but it starts exactly like mine does. It will do it cold as well and sometimes when it is warm not hot.

My idle is great and the car drives really well also. I'm just curious on that catch catch thing.

Mine does that occasionally when hot. I recently had it compression tested just for the hell of it, and it passed with flying colors. I just kind of assume this is what the owner's manual means when it advises against using synthetic oil due to starting problems. Mine started doing it after I switched to Mobil 1.

I thought about that as well, I used to use 5w30 when I first got the car and then switched to 10w40, maybe the thicker weight is causing more drag at startup. I have a Sohn however that pumps clean Castrol Power 1 racing 2T into the combustion chambers. So apart from drag from the thicker weight, I doubt it could be something else oil related.

I'm leaning towards a power related issue, i.e. the starter motor pulling too much power and not enough left over for the coils to start the car straight up. Not saying that there is anything wrong with the starter or coils, plugs, wires on mine as they are all new. I have a new battery 630CCA and a new 2kw starter, air filter is new, maf is clean and throttle body is clean. ESS is clean.

So my thoughts are oil weight or an earthing issue or old cables etc. I am sort of ruling out compression as when it does this catch it is as though it is holding the rpms back whereas a lack of compression would not affect the rpms other than make them go faster I think.

My 04 cranks well, however when before it starts, the engine seems to almost stop cranking and then it comes to life. Every cold start it does this since I put the used engine in it. Almost the opposite of what you're experiencing I suppose. The original engine had no issues and started up just like my RX-7's do. I've seen a few 8's with odd starting issues like this but they always seem to start so I haven't given the issue much attention.

This is not a thing. Drag from thicker oil (its only 10w40) isn't going to noticably slow down the engine. Ignition and compression are the usual suspects, start eliminating them :)

Drag from oil? :lol:

Yep I agree. Coils are my first guess, they are new cheap eBay coils. The car drives great and there are no misfires at all.

I swapped the coils over, i.e. The trailing to the leading position etc and startup was affected. Compression I doubt it as I had a slow starter and then changed to a fast one. It does the same thing that it used to do with the slow starter only faster.