K11 Micra: cold start engine flooding

I posted in October about a cold start problem which emerged on my K11 Micra N reg 90k miles. The engine was flooding when starting from cold and was then an absolute pig to start -- requiring excessive engine cranking to splutter into life.

This is a known problem with K11 Micras. My local mechanic fitted the modified wiring loom from the Nissan main dealer + a set of Bosch spark plugs. The car then started first time, every time for the next 5 months, through all the freezing weather!

Now the problem has resurfaced. The car has flooded on the last 3 morning starts.

Any ideas on this? I will take it back to my local mechanic to have a look. But the only thing I can think of is that the wiring loom may have come loose -- but a visual inspection shows nothing.

Is it possible for engine wiring to become "fried", or for bad connections to emerge?

Thanks Bruce

Reply to
bruce_phipps
Loading thread data ...

Do you have a mechanical only key? I found by chance that the boot/... key will actually start the engine in some cases, and it'll run for ~0.3 seconds, solely on the residual fuel. When the mechanical key is used, the injectors are not activated, but everything else happens as normal.

I suspect - though have not checked this, that on shutdown, if the engine is nice and warm, a way of completely avoiding the whole issue would be to simply rev it hard, then turn the engine off while it's revving, with the throttle open. This will clear any unburned fuel.

Reply to
Ian Stirling

Just the one key for ignition and boot.

engine is nice and warm, a way of completely avoiding the whole issue would be to simply rev it hard, then turn the engine off while it's revving, with the throttle open. This will clear any unburned fuel.<

Interesting. So I pull into the garage, rev it and turn off as I do so. Anyone else tried this?

One other thing -- once the Micra has been started from cold in the morning, it will be 100% OK for any further starts. I can leave it in the car park at work for 8 or 9 hrs and it will start up first time and get me home.

Thanks, Bruce

Reply to
bruce_phipps

This happened on a friends Micra. The garage reluctantly came out (it was under warranty) and the mechanic removed a fuse from the fuse box by the clutch pedal, cranked the car for a couple of seconds or 5 and refitted the fuse.

Reply to
Sir Hubert Beaudegarde

Thanks, I've been using this trick to get it started in the morning. You say it just needs 5 secs with fuse out, then starts up first time. Mine needs to be seriously cranked for about 90 secs (or more) until it splutters into life...I've nearly drained the battery more than once. And the neighbours are getting a bit fed up.

Bruce

Reply to
bruce_phipps

Actually - hard is probably a misnomer, just rev it to maybe 2-3000RPM, hitting the rev limiter would be overkill :)

Is it possible you've stalled it? When you stall it, it's going to be putting in maximum fuel, in an attemt to keep it going.

I do wonder if it's something to do with temperature. I have not seen this fault on mine fortunately.

Reply to
Ian Stirling

Using an mechanical key only is the same as cranking with the fuse out.

You could probably wrap the existing key in foil if you don't have one.

Reply to
Ian Stirling

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.