Occasional very hard start

[Juliuswws]

Hey Guys,

Recently got the above problem in some mornings. Might be weather (rain) related, not sure yet.

It cranks and there is fuel smell in the exhaust so I believe its ignition related.
It took 3 very long ignitions to have it started in the morning. Connected and grounded a spare igniter, didn't help. Reset the ECU (no error codes before or after). After all this and a very long cranking, she started up very rough and a big puff of smoke (all the un-burned fuel) and then it was all good. 8 hours later when I was coming home from work, started right up as normal.

Ignition system components have the following kms in them:
Ignition coil (Blueprint ADT31479) - 27000
NGK BKR7EIX (Iridium) - 32000
Distributor cap (Blueprint ADT314235) - 41000
Rotor arm (Bosch 1 987 234 065) - 41000
Ignition wires (Blueprint ADT31660) - 41000

I suspect the aftermarket ignition coil may have cracked and moisture goes in...but that is just a guess.

Also, I may have increased fuel consumption, but can't confirm it yet. Got my new Berk exhaust just a week ago so I'm driving a little differently
Still, would a leaky injector cause this hard starts?

Coolant temp sensor for ECU maybe? I Will measure it.

Any ideas are most welcome!

Cheers,
Julius

[Juliuswws]

Looks like I got it sorted.

The coil looked and measured good so I left it.
Cleaned the coil/igniter bracket properly for good grounding and changed the igniter to my spare unit.

Also installed a little cover to protect the laminated core of the coil from rain


Sensors (THA,THW,THAM) measured all good.

Plugs looked perfect, the gap is still 0.8 so I left them there for another 20000 - 30000km


Since I ripped cylinder 2 lead upon removal, I also changed the leads to a genuine set.
While at it, also got new rotor and cap installed.

Rotor looked like so:


Cap contacts looked pretty good:


Would have been great to find what the exact problem was, but it is what it is now. Started perfectly in the last few days.

Also ran the fuel pump for 5 minutes with the plugs removed, I didn't smell any fuel at all. This is the most scientific way I can quickly check for injector leak