The V8 Owners Forum -

Hot starting problem

I wonder if anyone can help me with my problem of starting when hot. Its a Rover 3500 V8 EFI engine.

When she is at running temperature (hot) if you were to turn it off and try and start it back up again it would not start. It sounds like the battery is not man enough to turn it over, but I have had a battery test done and it is holding charge and the cells are fine. I know the alternator is working as its sitting around the 13 volts constant so the battery is not a problem. It sounds as though its turning over very very slowly, just not fast enough for it to start. Once the engine has cooled down, its starts no problem. If its cold or hot, it runs as it should do with no problem, the only problem is it starting when its hot. I am not quite sure what this could be, any ideas would be great, I am not mechanic it just feels and sounds like a lazy starter motor when its hot, has anyone experienced this before? What I don’t want to do it change the starter motor when its not that…..

I had exactly that with my SD1 EFI. I put it down to the starter getting very hot due to being so close to the exhaust manifold in the SD1 It might make a difference what type of starter you have - there were two versions used on the SD1. I've now got a high torque one which seems not to suffer from this.

You might want to try a starter blanket as a heat shield.
I got one off E bay for about £15.


cheers
P

Shouldn't the charging voltage be closer to 14.5v?

13.8volts to 14.4volts is the correct range for a lead acid battery.

Chris.

ChrisJC wrote:13.8volts to 14.4volts is the correct range for a lead acid battery.

Chris.

I know that's the quoted figure, but i have a voltmeter sitting across the battery, and the highest I've ever seen it read is 14.1V. Normally sits at 13.8 with the battery fully charged and only the engine load - slightly less with a high load. Changed from the original alternator to a new 100 amp one - and the battery has also been replaced since it was fitted.

might be a bad connection problem when hot,
check volt drop on starter live & earth when cranking, ign disconnected.

I had this problem years ago and found after cleaning and painting the lot it was slow as hell, swapped the wires on the solenoid and it made a big diffence, now wether it was just poor connections, i'm not sure, but the other thing i did was to get rid of the weave type earth straps and proper battery cable ones, never had a problem since

Hi guys, thanks for all your advice.... I bit the bullet today and changed the starter motor, and this was the problem. She is now starting on the button, hot or cold! It was a bit of a fiddley job when you're laying underneath it that top bolt on the starter motor seems very far away and hard to get to! When I did get the starter motor loose, I had a prblem with trying to get it out, as the manifold and the steering column were a big issue! The only way I could see of doing this was to undo the pipe that goes to the gearbox for the clutch fluid... and I managed to slide the starter motor out that way... Then I had the problem of having no clutch so had to bleed the system. I have never done this before and had to pull out the haynes manual lol and a bit of help from my wife... pumping the clutch and hey presto... I have a clutch again! My wife is going to be driving the pickup to and from work so at least I know its going to be getting some use!