[tcb] Why Do You Suppose My Bus Suddenly Hates Starting in the Morning?

  • From: kelly dosch <kellydosch@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:20:51 -0800 (PST)


It's a 1979 Campmobile Deluxe, (2.0L?) F.I.. I just got it and am not positive 
what engine it is but it is all original if that helps. It only has 74,000 
miles on it. It was just rebuilt about 600 miles ago at a VW dealership in 
Austin. The work was done with love by friends of mine and they really gave it 
the royal treatment, sparing no expense. 
  It ran like a top until about 2.5 weeks ago. It just kept getting harder and 
harder to start in the morning. Now It takes no less than about ten minutes to 
start. I turn the key about 20 times, feeling my ulcer grow as my starter 
slowly burns up. 
  It just goes whir-whir-whir- plubba-plubba-start-PSYCH! Stall. And I crank it 
again and again and again. Each time it gets closer and closer to starting and 
running until it finally fires up. I then have to keep it revved a bit for a 
while or it will stall. 
  Once it is warmed up it runs like a Swiss watch. I can drive it to the 
grocery store and when I get out it will fire right up because it is still 
warm. And it seems like, when it won't start in the morning, that I am just 
warming up the engine by cranking the starter for twenty minutes and that is 
why it finally goes. 
  I can't blame the cooler temps we have been having lately because I have 
started it on cold days before and it fired right up. 
  It is a brand new VW battery, basically brand new everything! I even 
disconnected the battery and charged it, hooked it back up and it made no 
difference. Just making sure it wasn't the battery. 
  Then one day I put a heat lamp on the engine for a few hours to rule out the 
possibility of it just not wanting to start on cold days. No change. 
  Then I put a bottle of fuel dry in it in case I had water in the lines. That 
was yesterday and I think it did start just a bit easier today, but I have 
driven it 100 miles with this additive. I think that should have simply fixed 
it or not by now, no? 
  I just don't get it. Almost everything on the engine is new. Besides the 
engine itself. Which was rebuilt at the holiest of VW sources,(the VW 
dealership- and they do not play)  and it had low miles to start with. 
  I think the key to this mystery is the fact that it fires right up every time 
as long as it is warm, but a cold morning start is hell on the starter and 
battery. 
  And remember, just a couple weeks ago it started just fine on cold 30* days. 
  Any thoughts? 
  Thank you so much for your time.  Kelly 



      

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