Hard Start

[lincoln B. stinkn]

I have a 97 Lincoln Town car with 130,000 miles. The problem is that after sits for a day its hard to start. It has a new battery and turns over fine but i have to get on the pedal to get it to start. Once it starts it sputters a little bit and wants to kill, but after about 10 second its fine. It will start up fine if i shut it off then start it. Somebody told me it sounded like the timing was off. I have not had the car very long but i have never seen a check engine light. What's the problem here?

 

[V-Tally]

I had a 2000 town car with similar problems. Several mechanics told me it was the fuel pump, IIRC the seals go bad, and the fuel leaks past them and back into the tank, so it loses pressure. Mine would start if I would turn the key to on back off then back on to repressurize the rails.

 

[slowmkviii]

If you have to step on the gas to get it to run then you might want to look into an IAC valve.

 

[lincoln B. stinkn]

Thanks for the tip about the IAC . I just cleaned it, full of black ish. Is there a way to reset the computer now that its clean? Or is that not a issue?

 

[driller]

Should not be an issue.

My '02 didn't start once. A rap on the IACV with a ratchet head did the trick.

 

[lincoln B. stinkn]

Well i let the car sit over night, got in today it seemed to start better because i did not give it any pedal it started on its own but still chugged quite a bit at first.

 

[lincoln B. stinkn]

I'm going to drive the car a little more when I get the chance, then I will know if the problem is fixed.

 

[lincoln B. stinkn]

My first thought was that the lines had no pressure, that's what it seems like. Come to find out the old "turn the key on and off" trick didn't give me the pressure i needed

 

[slowmkviii]

Did you do a fuel pressure test?

 

[lincoln B. stinkn]

No i have not checked fuel pressure. I got the car a month ago and it started fine at first. I have an 93 linc also and its been cold so i really have done nothing with the 97 other than cleaning. Once it warms up outside I'll give it a full tune and figure out the problem. Thought this would be a good place to talk about the symptoms and get ideas from people that own these cars since their isn't alot that goes wrong with these engines. My 93 fires up a soon as i touch the key. I cant live with a Lincoln with a starting issue lol.