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My car won't start - can you help me?
My car has problems starting. A mechanic replaced the straight front exhaust pipe and after a couple of weeks the car doesn't start. The mechanic tells me the filter and catalytic convertor are sooted and the car will never start unless this is rectified. I opened the bonnet and pressed the red fuel cutout button and after a few attempts the car stared. I revved it and left it running over 30 minutes, switched it off and it started again, However it seems that after leaving it overnight the starting is not easy. Another mechanic checked it and said the anti pollution system needs cleaning.
Asked on 29 March 2018 by Harry
Answered by
Alan Ross
The red button is the fuel inertia cut off. Do you have to keep resetting this now? Do you do a lot of town type driving as if so this could block the catalytic convertor. If so then when started take the car for a motorway/dual carriageway drive for at least 30 mins and keep the revs above 2000 rpm. This may then help. As for difficult starting this may be a different problem. Has the fuel filter ever been changed? It may be prudent to have a diagnostic carried out to see if a fault code exists before you go changing any parts, as the problem could be one of many things such as a faulty engine coolant temp sensor, a fuel pressure/rail sensor, EGR problems, the solenoid/valve or the injectors.
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