One for the Guru's

[matt205]

First the good news!
My 16v came to life yesterday for the first time, WooHoo.

The bad news
A problem that plagued the last few months of the old 8v has reared it's ugly head again. Cold Starting. It simply will not fire without the aid of some good old Aerostart. Once warm starts and runs fine.

The base car ans ECU is a 92 Series III 205, the engine is an early (89ish) MI-16. This car runs Motronic 1.3.

Things I've tried:
Replaced the fuel pump (needed a new one anyway)
Checked, what I think is the Tach relay or Pump relay, this is Fine.
Replaced the Injection Thermistor (had a spare)
Scratched my head for a while...

Anyone familir with the cold start setup on the series I MI-16's

Help!!!

 

[Stuey]

The thing that immediately comes to mind is the engine temperature sensor. It affects quite a bit on Motronic systems during a cold start. I'm not familiar with your setup, but this sensor is found screwed into a housing in the cooling system somewhere, with one of those standard Bosch connectors attached to it. You can test across it with an ohmmeter at 20C and 80C which should give you 2000-3000 ohms and 250-400 ohms respectively - I'm pretty sure these are standard across the board for early Motronic, but maybe someone with an Mi16 manual can confirm.

Stuey

 

[pugsy]

A common problem with cold starting is there is not enough voltage getting to the starter motor to turn it over, adding an additional relay to provide more current to the s/motor usually cures it, also is the starter motor in good nick, when cold the little bits (good technical term!) inside might be getting stuck and might require the spray of Autostart to get them turning.

 

[matt205]

Thanks Guys,

I'm pretty sure it's a fueling thing. The starter has been reco'd so is virtually as new. I suspect a temp sensor or something not sure, fuel pump relay is working just fine.