Car hard to start, Any ideas?? or known faults??

How ye??

Im about to buy my second V3 Sti ( 1997 Sti Type R ) and to get a bit more information on the car I asked on here if anyone knew the car in question. I got a reply from a lad who told me it was belonging to a mate of his and before he sold it became very hard to start he likened it to having no compression

Just wondering if there is any known faults that could cause this to happen?? I know the last one I had after it was mapped could be a bitch to start at times and I also had a bit of hassle with my Legacys crankshaft position sensor.

Hoping one of ye lads can shine some light on this for me.

Incidently the owner told me the car was in for a check in Finnegans subaru last week is there any mechanics here from Finnegans who could give me some heads up on the car?? I have seen and driven the car and there is no problems driving it nor is there any noises that should not be there ( Been there and worn a whole fec kin box of tshirts )

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me out.

Darragh

Darragh,

A scooby being hard to start can be down to any number of things, fuel problem, spark problem, or compression problem. Also as you already mentioned faulty crank or cam sensors can cause these kind of faults.

I dont know if any of these problems are more common than others. I know JDM models do suffer with compression and big end problems because of fueling/mapping, or the lack of, but I've seen and heard of JDM models running on 95 octane for years without issue so hard to say its going to happen to you.

If the car runs well without unusual knocking or noises then i'd assume its ok. Did it start ok for you when you drove it?

If you know a garage that does a compression leak down test (NOT A COMPRESSION TEST) then this would be good to ensure that the piston rings, valve seats and head gaskets are in good shape.

Have to say my 02 has got hard to start when cold, gonna do service and change plugs seeif it helps ,