Well I have 12,200 miles on my 04 Acura TL. i GET IN MY CAR today TO START IT UP AND THE ENGINE WOUldn't start. It was trying to start as I had my key turned forward. All the lights in the spedometer lit up but my car wouldn't start. When I tried the 2nd time everything was fine after 2 seconds starting as I had the key turned all the way. I was kind of dissapointed that a 35 k car will have this kind of problem and is less than a yr old. Its kind of embarrasing when others are around your car hearing you try to start a kluxury car. This has been my 2nd attempt to start my car within a few days having a difficult time to start. Should I worry about this and will this get any worse?

 

maybe get the battery checked out?

 

the battery is fine. It tries to start , you hear the engine tryng to start but it wont turn over.

 

Take it to the dealer, It might give them an error code.

Possibly a faulty starter....I know that a little rust can form inside a starter and once it vibrates loose, it will allow the car to start. Just a thought.

 

As I understand it the starter DID turn the engine over, but the engine did not start/run.

Possibly the engine was fuel "flooded", quite a bit of fuel is injected during "cold" start conditions. I've had this happen to a variety of fuel injected vehicles after the following drive cycle... 1)Start engine, immediately back car down driveway and shut the engine off (start car wash?). 2) Start engine, immediately drive car up driveway and shut the engine off (finished car wash). 3) Attempt to start engine... just cranks but does not start/run. Follow the instructions in the Owners Manual under "Starting the engine" to clear the excessive fuel.

 

I've had this happen to me once or twice to and it really irritated me. I've never had trouble starting a car and this is the most expensive one I've ever purchased.

A number of people have posted about this problem and apparently Honda is using the ULEV engine as a scapegoat. Some nonesense about environmental friendliness causes hard starts sometimes. I think it may even be in the manual.

Most of the reports on this forum are of hot start problems, but it only happened to me in cold start situations.

There are some members who wound up having to have the car towed because of non-starting problems. However, if it always turns over on the second try like mine does, I guess you just have to get used to it.

If you can't tell, this is a sore spot for me with my car. Its only happen a few isolated times but it really gets my angry for a car of this caliber.

Maybe I'll go kick a tree to get even.

 

Ive had the same problem about 10 days ago but didn't post about it. It took me until the 4th attempt to start it and it didn't sound great then either. The car doesn't start ever with a real nice "turn over". It seems to always sound like it's struggling..and it's worst in the cold. I agree, it doesn't start like a luxury car. I'm really worried when the temps drop in a few weeks. I hope it starts.

 

i usaully have this issue as well..first attempt, nothing the second time u hear a clunc noise when it does.

 

Let me just add myself to this non-start case...

I took it to dealer and they told me it was fine..

'Our mecatnic starts 1-2-3 no problem.'

I tried it there and it worked...but a few days later, it happens again... I just don't wanna grind that shiet every time when i try to start by holding the key all the way for 3 seconds!

 

this happens to me maybe once every 300 starts.

 

What 04AcuraTL and Cannon1D describe actually happens to many cars. What is usually indicates is that a few teeth in the starter are missing. When you try to start any car and a few teeth are missing, it is like playing the lottery. Put it this way: imagine a gear trying to mesh with an engine gear - but no teeth are on the gear where it lines up! When you try to start, the gears don't mesh and you get a click- the starter is stymed trying to start the engine.

Gears fall off a starter gear for a number of reasons - the primary reason is user error. When the car is running, the starter gear is disengaged from the engine. Now if a user does not realize the engine is on and tries to engage the starter (turns the key in the ignition), it throws the starter gear into play - and that is when teeth get pulled off the starter. Not saying it happened here, but I am just giving background.

I want to say I am not a mechanic, but I have worked on my own car from time to time to save a dollar or two and have learned a fair amount doing it. Good luck with this (I own a 2001 with, of course, a new transmission....)

 

One more thing... if the teeth are missing, to answer the original question by WDP-AcuraTL - it tends to get worse over time as more teeth fall off. The starter works after a failed attempt because the starter gear moves to a different point after each attempt. If there are teeth at that point where the two gears are meshing, the car starts! However, as more teeth fall off it gets harder to start until you can no longer start the car... good luck!

 

This happened to me on Saturday, only it took about 5 minutes or trying to get the thing to restart.

I would have been pissed off except that I recall reading here that others have had the same problem and it eventually starts.

This was a cold start and it was not the battery nor "teeth" missing in the starter motor. The engine simply would not turn over.