[200q20v] 91 200 hard start.

[Tom and Carlyn Jervis]

>Excessive cranking to start. After start, smooths and runs normally. Smell
>petrol after hard start--goes away.  any ideas?  Thanks, Gary

This sounds like it could be the beginning of what my car did last 
winter.   It cranks happily and after about 2 sec it acts like it 
might want to start but doesn't.   When it does not start, codes 2113 
(hall sender) and 2121 (idle switch) show.  When it is warm and 
starts happily, erasing the codes and driving, restarting, etc. gives 
no error codes (4444).  It was a nuisance for a while then became 
worse and worse.

Solution was to change the distributor.  Once running, the Hall 
sender is superfluous to the operation of the ignition system as it 
gets a signal from the TDC sensor.  Gas smell is from car trying to 
start, but no reliable spark.  When my car did this it would spark 
occasionally, but not enough to really start.  I never could figure 
out why it would start OK when warm.

Idle switch code comes on because car is not starting.  This is a red 
herring, but the Hall sender code is right.
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