My car won,t start on damp mornings

[sarahjane113]

Hi Anita
My mini often takes 6 or 7 tries in the mornings especially when its wet. I dont have a garage so that might also be a factor maybe. Glad your having more luck with your car. Hows your friend getting on with her fiesta?

[ANITA ANDERSON]

Hi Anita
My mini often takes 6 or 7 tries in the mornings especially when its wet. I dont have a garage so that might also be a factor maybe. Glad your having more luck with your car. Hows your friend getting on with her fiesta?

Hi Sarahjane , sorry i havent replied sooner but i've been busy , my friend's fiesta is 10 times better than it used to be at starting in the morning and its all down to the fact that she now keeps it in a garage over night , honestly , you should try to get a garage to keep your mini in , you'd find a massive improvment. Anita..xx

[nono]

Hi was reading the things about car problems and im not sure if im doing it right.my car wouldn't start yesterday,but i always thought you just held the key only once until it started.i did this and it just ended up running out of engine noise,and now im stuck

[nono]

oh hi again i forgot to say and maybe this will help that last week it was chugging lots coming home from work and my friend sue who was driving behind me said that there was loads of smoke coming from the exhaust thingy.do you think i may have the wrong type of exhaust thingy on it.bye the way the car is a ford escort and its red

[ANITA ANDERSON]

oh hi again i forgot to say and maybe this will help that last week it was chugging lots coming home from work and my friend sue who was driving behind me said that there was loads of smoke coming from the exhaust thingy.do you think i may have the wrong type of exhaust thingy on it.bye the way the car is a ford escort and its red

Hi , what year is your escort ? and does it have a manual choke ? cause i own a 1967 morris minor and it has a manual choke which i need to use to get it to start from cold , and when i get it started i have to leave the choke out quite a long time so i can drive it without it spluttering and conking out when i stop , as i'm driving it with the choke out i can see smoke coming out of the exhaust which i've been told is because its running so rich , it also starts chugging as i'm driving it but thats telling me i need to push the choke in a bit and as soon as i do push it in a bit the chugging stops for a while until it warms up a bit more then the chugging starts again , this usually goes on until its warmed up enough and i've pushed the choke fully in and it doesnt conk out when i stop. hope this is usefull , and let me know what year it is and if it has a manual choke...............Anita..xx

[nono]

hello its quite old its an f reg and im not sure about the choke.not even sure what one is.maybe im suppossed to use it then.bye the way its working again my friend came round and connected her car up to mine and it is going again.well it did last night when we went out although it conked out loads coming home but it made it. hopefully it will work later when i go out.i'll try to find the choke thingy.is it in the engine

[Lykurgus]

The choke will be a knob or lever somewhere on the console (mine's near the blinker control). You pull it out on cold mornings to give the engine a stronger dose of fuel, as it were.
If smoke belches out, and the engine's in reasonable shape, the air/fuel mix is too rich - the choke lever is too far out, or stuck. It could also explain the "chugging" after the engine's warmed up.

But the fact that you had to jump-start it, leads me to also suspect your battery. Try unhooking the terminals, cleaning them (and scraping any paint off), and hooking them up again.
If that doesn't work, and the battery's about three years old, time to ditch the battery.

[sarahjane113]

Hiya, I remember when I got my first mini and I didnt really understand what the choke was about and often forgot to pull it out in the mornings. Anita is right you do need the choke right out in the morning and even then you might find you have to try a few times. My mini usually takes 5 or 6 tries every morning to start. I never really know how long to keep the choke out for, i gradually put it in as i drive and if it stalls or jerks then I pull it back out a bit. Its just a case of trial and error. The mini is a lot worse in this cold weather so you might find you have to allow a bit of extra time.

[nono]

hi i tried using the choke and was told to let it warm up so when it finally worked i left it going in the drive while i carried on getting ready for work.there was lots of smoke coming from the back and when i went back in about 20 minuets it had stopped and lots of coloured lights were on on the display thingy.i tried it loads of times to get it going but i think i just flooded the battery and was late for work!! hopefully i will just get used to it.

[Guest]

Whenever it is cold and damp my vauxhall nova will not start,The other morning I was sat for 1/2 an hour cranking away It doesn,t seem to matter if the choke is out or not Then when I do get it going it will quite often conk out at the first stop sign then all I get is a load of blokes beeping and calling me a silly woman,Has anybody had any similar experiences and could offer me some advice

Spray under the bonnet, leads with oil. Works a treat

[Guest]

wd40

That;s the one

[blondeone]

spray what on the engine

[blondeone]

huh normally just screaming at it to work helps!!i dont even know how to get to the engine bit

[Guest]

spray what on the engine

WD40, I'm blonde too and this always works. Open up the bonnet and spray DW40 over the leads. Sometimes my car ignition won't turn over because the leads are damp. As soon as I sprayed that over them, I had no more problems, it ran like a dream

[Guest]

huh normally just screaming at it to work helps!!i dont even know how to get to the engine bit

Also, don't take it to a mechanic before you try WD40 because they will tell you that you need a new car, which it complete cack. They are greedy lying little toads.