Euliscool

Is it just me or do any of your TL's have a really rought time starting up sometimes. I was at my friends house and i started up my engine and it wouldn't start the first time. It's never happened again, but kinda scared me. But usually when i start my car, it sometimes struggles and starts up really quietly. I think i brought up the point before that in the manual, it says the engine computer tries to conserve gas on ignition. :banghead:

caball88

yes ULEV2 emissions causes this problem. not to worry, this happened to me once and what i did was turn the key to acc position and waited a bit the started the car. i don't know what that does but i have not had the problem since.

TBone2004

Holy crap. thought it was just mine! I had the exact thing happen two days ago. Never did it since - but freaked me out.

silverbishop

It has happened just once, but before my '04 TL I owned an Audi A4 so...I am used to it!!!

Lore

I just hold down the key in the starting position until it catches. It doesn't take any longer than other cars, but I think I expected it to catch right away. (I don't even have to wait for the 2 seconds to pass -- just insert and crank and in about 1 second it catches).

need4spd

I had to go 3 to 4 cranks sometimes, at first it was just 2, but the older it got and colder, the more cranks I had to do, even with extended cranking times it would not catch the first or second time. Some blame it on the imobilizer ckt not recognizing the key and the dealer recomended only having the car key in the ignition (no fob or other keys) to maximize the signal, but that did not help either.

erikmoeser

Occasionally mind does not catch right away, usually after sitting for an hour maybe, so not dead cold. Just keep cranking until it runs, no need to stop and try again.

Euliscool

hahaha seems kinda stupid to me that its like that. I'm surprised no one has bitched about it. Good thing it doesnt get too cold around these parts. :tflamer:

BigBluu

get used to it. i've had my car for about 6 months and average about once a month. i mentioned it to my dealer, but they couldn't tell me what was wrong because they couldn't replicate it. this ULEV theory...did this come from a dealer or the manual?

TLGator

Once a month? Sounds like no big deal to me.

Zero523

Hey Don't worry about the slow ignition problem, because its happened to me about 5 times, and i think its normal.. hehehe. "think" is normal. Well if everyone here says it happens to them, i guess i wont worry about it anymore. Right? let me know!

tonyg24

ya i experienced it...kind of embarrassing with a new car when u get in with some hot girl and the car looks all nice and doesnt have a solid start...

Tripp11

Well, mine does the same thing....twice a week or thereabouts. Acura service tech looked at it and couldn't duplicate the problem so nothing they could do.....he basically played dumb. He also said, that while they had it for an entire day, they sent a tech out in the parking lot to start it once every hour and it never happened again.......NOW WHAT THE FUC* IS THAT GOING TO PROVE?? If it wouldn't start, he would scratch his head and say to himself, "Gee, it didn't start."

When mine acts up it takes at least 6-10 seconds for it to finally fire after turning over and over and over.

I've heard the same mumbo jumbo of ULEV and the immobilizer chip from different forums and different service techs.

Sounds as if previous ULEV'ers deem this as normal so I don't worry much about it anymore.

BigBluu

no big deal...just embarassing as hell when you're in public. and i didn't expect this from a brand new car, regardless of how much it costs. my suv's going on 6 years with this never happening even once.

meathead

yeah, the mannual says something about ignition to wait up to 15 seconds when starting before turning the key to the off position and beginning again.

15 seconds seems kinda long for a start time. the longest i've had to wait was about 10 seconds. it has never actually failed to start the first time though.

and yeah, the shit is pretty embarassing.

billk86

I wish I had your problems!!

HuKaShI

This bit of information may or may not help you guys but here goes.

I have a 98 Accord and my car does this too.

It happens only on a warm start. I think what happens on a cold start is the engine is given more gas so the RPMs can jump a bit to get the engine warm quicker.

If the engine is already warm, less gas is pumped (something to do maybe with ULEV) to get the car started and then it stalls out and you have to do it again. Maybe raising the idle would remedy this problem no?

bodyshopguy

You guys made me so happy. Mine wouldnt start three times and I was freakin. I love Acura's and never had any problems with all 6 that I have owned in my life. This car has seena few minor problems, but i was thrilled to read this forum. My car is O.K.

bktabinga

Its in the 2004 TL Quick Start guide...and I quote..."Things you need to know...At times, the engine may take longer to start than usual; the engine management software is working to reduce emissions at startup."

Why they left this out of the manual I have no idea...but if you read the description of the ULEV emissions, it makes sense, if there is some fuel left, some vapor that it collects, it sends those back to the engine so it can burn before the car starts and that vapor is sent straight to the atmosphere unused, I think, I'm not an expert.

I think this is normal in that my MDX which runs like a champ and has not given me one problems in the 35,000 miles I have driven it, does the same thing from time to time, and and it is ULEV.

It is not embarrassing to a girl, when you quickly explain why that slow start just happened, and it is because of ULEV. Then she will be impressed that you are helping to save the earth!

Zeuser

That's exactly what happened to me. A girl co-worker of mine wanted a ride in my brand new TL... yes... she's very hot!!!! But married. DOH!

Anyway, I try to start up the TL and instead of doing it within 2-3 seconds like it usually does, it took about 5-7 seconds instead. Very embarassing and it's the first time that it happened to me.

Hot girl... married. TL won't start on first cranks. I swear... there's a conspiracy going on to keep me single!

tekageek

Sorry to revive an old thread but I think i'm experiencing the same problem now with the startup. 04 Tl with 36,000 miles and this morning it started up slower than normal. Sounded like it was struggling to turn over. Even wierder is that my hard wired V1's concealed display had all its LEDs lit up when the car didn't turn over and I let go of the key. Turned it all the way off, waited a couple seconds turned it over to ACC, waited for the hum to stop, then waited a couple more seconds and turned the key. Again it started really slow but eventually turned over.
Is it the spark plugs? The alternator? Never happened before and now all of a sudden it starts choking? I missed one of the MID Maintenance reminders and just had the oil changed. Air filter behind the glove box was changed once.

mn2trance

I've been having the no start 3 times now and here's my post chronicling it.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141611

Let me know if you're experiencing the same problems or it's just different all together.

shayan

iTrader: (1)

mine only has a rough start when I start it after a long time. But it gets me worried

CobraGuy

I wonder if some of you might be suffering from heat soak in the summer heat. When you let the car sit for a bit after driving it on a hot day, it can actually boil the gas in the fuel rails. The car won't start on vapor. If you cycle the key a couple of times to run the fuel pump, it can help purge the gasses. From what some have posted here, that doesn't sound like the problem in all cases...but it could be on others I read...and in fact is a problem I've seen on many other cars. I've even had one that if I sat at a light for an extended period of time it would boil the fuel in the rails and bog when you took off. This problem is much more prevelant on returnless fuel systems.

Scott_6Spd

Once a month at best will I get a miss-start. It's usually because I stop turning the key for a split second shorter than needed. I did read about the "longer start" in the manual.

The second-try start is slow and ugly....

Lesson Learned: Turn the key a little longer than my other cars. If I miss-start, wait the 15-seconds before trying a second time.