318IS, starting troubles

[CraigG]

my 318is has trouble starting.

it always starts but it has to crank 4 or 5 times before it fires up, its rather annoying.

any ideas to what the problem is? what can be changed to fix it?

cheers
craig

[CraigG]

no ideas?

[Ant]

so its spinning over on the starter for a long time before actually firing up, yet when she does fire she starts and runs fine ? or does there seem to be an overfulling issue ??

Spark plugs etc all in good order ?

any modifications added ?

as usual, more questions to get more info

[dannosail]

I've had this problem and just taken car to the garage. I took the plugs out and a couple were pretty wet. Apparently E30s can flood if you only run the engine for a short time - I'm not convinced, I think BMW know how to make cars.

Always needed a bit of throttle to get the car started and the other symptom I had was that once started the car it wasn't firing on all cylinders until it warmed up and then started to idle normally.

Don't want to hijack Craig's post but is there a common cause here Ant?

[CraigG]

its got a zone chip and bbtb. i havnt had a chance to pull the plugs out and check them, could they be a problem?

runs spot on once its running, but it cracks over on teh starter for a good while before bursting into life

i never run it for short drives, always give it a good run out

[E30Mark]

Hi Craig,

Just stumbled across this thread... your car actually has a viper chip in there...

It always used to start on the button for me, might be worth checking the engine earth just to make sure it's OK.

Did you get my email a couple of days ago?

[CraigG]

engine earths, will check them tommorow

i aint checked my emails in a couple days *opens emails*