[urq] urq Hot Start Issues

[Paul Ahvenainen]

Lately I have been having some hot start issues with my '83 WX urq.  I seem to recall having similar problems with CIS injected cars many years ago.  Mostly this happens in my own driveway, so I just leave the car alone for an hour or so and everything is fine.  Yesterday the hot start problem occurred at the grocery store when I was in a bit of a hurry so I tried to figure it out.

I had been driving the car moderately hard, testing the brakes after installing new SS brake lines.  I let the car idle for about one minute before shutting it down.  I was in the store for about 10 to 15 minutes.  When I tried to start the car, it fired and then died.  When I tried to restart the engine, it would not even try to catch.  I tried waiting for 10 minutes, no luck.  Another 15 minutes, no luck.

I was getting ready to face the inevitable call to the wife to get a ride, but thought I would see if there was some obvious sensor or other problem.  I've heard that a faulty sensor can cause problem with the cold start valve, which I guess can also cause hot start problems.  Here is what I found:  There are two fuel lines that cross the head and go into an assembly mounted to the block.  I assume one line is a return line and there is a valve that works off of some sensor.  Possibly part of the cold start system?  Anyway this assembly had a gray electrical connection with I think four wires.  On the same wire loom there is a green electrical connector with two wires that was not connected to anything.  It appeared to be the same identical shape as the gray connector.  I looked around for a possible connection for the green connector and could not find one.  In the spirit of experimentation, I disconnected the gray and pugged in the green connector.  The car fired right up on the first crank.  I drove it home that way with no apparent problems.

I tried to figure out what I did in the Bentley Manual, but could not find a similar setup in the CIS section.


1.        What the heck did I do?

2.       Is it OK to drive it like this?

3.       What is the long term fix?

Thanks:
Paul Ahvenainen
Dir. of Winemaking
F. Korbel & Bros., Inc.
(707) 824-7605