Inari

Hello, I have a 2006 3.5L Uplander. I have no problem starting it up in the morning. However, when I leave from work and stop somewhere on the way home, I sometimes have to crank it two or more times to get it started again. It does turn over but doesn't catch right away. I have a client with an extremely steep driveway, and it's usually after leaving her place when my van misbehaves. The engine is also still partly warm when this happens and it's an extremely wet west coast winter, so it's either raining, or there's a lot of moisture in the air. At home I park facing uphill at a slight slant. I was going to change the fuel filter, thinking that gravity might be pushing particles into the fuel line, but I've just found out that the filter is inside the gas tank. Does anyone have any thoughts on this. Is it likely to be the fuel pump/filter assembly, or could it be something else?

Thanks in advance,
Inari

tech2

i would check for injector leakdown into the cylinder. this can create a flooding condition that shows up as a long crank/hard start after the hot soak. if the van has a fuel pressure regulator that uses a vacuum line into the intake manifold; if the fpr diapharm leaks, its will also cause a hard start after a hot soak.
the conditions doesn't appear after its sits for a long period due to the fuel evaporating.

the way to test this theroy is to install a fuel pressure gauge on the fuel rail...prime the system and watch for a pressure drop.

Inari

Hello, Tech2, Thanks for your reply. I didn't see it until this evening, but I've copied it all down for future reference. It's all a learning experience, no matter what the outcome.

In the meantime, I took my van to my boyfriend's place, which is a lot further away than my daily commute since he lives in the country. (Hopefully that means I don't have a fuel injector leak, because it sounds like a complicated job to fix.) He took it for a drive down a steep hill, turned it off, then turned on the ignition, but didn't have the same problem as I did. (Today was dry and sunny, instead of rainy and wet when it did happen, so that might be a factor.) Anyways, he cleaned out the throttle body with Kleen-Flo by spraying it on and wiping off the gunk, then cleaned the m.a.p. sensor, also covered in gunk, with QD Electronic Cleaner. We then took it for another test drive, and found it started perfectly every time.

Then when I started to drive it home, I found the "check engine" light stayed on. What might have caused this? Glen, my partner in crime, re-checked all the connections and they were still tight. The van runs well otherwise and isn't overheating, isn't over-reving, and doesn't smell funny.

Thanks in advance,
Inari

oldchevy

The check engine light will take a bit of time for it to go off by itself. Read the code and see what the problem might be. Reset the the check engine light and see if it comes back on.

Inari

Thank you Old Chevy for replying. My boyfriend used his code reader and it came up as "Fuel trim systems lean bank 1". After my boyfriend turned off the code, the "check engine light" didn't come back on for a whole week, so we thought the system had adjusted itself. Then yesterday, the light came back on. After a scrolling through internet searching for possible problems and having a major discussion with my significant other, I opened the hood this morning to find that he had forgotten to put the air tube back onto the vacuum tube, and that one of the air filter clips was loose,probably because he brushed it with his sleeve when he was replacing the vacuum tube. Even the best mechanics can forget things sometimes.