Lots of cranking before starting

[historiker]

Hi all,

First post here on the forum!

I finally let my old '88 Volvo 240 go, and picked up a 2003 protege that I love by comparison. Lately, though, its been cranking a lot before starting.

Its been about 80K miles since I bought it, so my first instinct was plugs and wires, but I wanted to run it by you all, since ancient Swedish cars are more my strong suite at this point.

Thanks!

 

[Ice88]

Yeah check spark plugs first theyd be my first guess

 

[P-Funk!]

^yep. Check maint items first.

Then run some Seafoam[tm] through the gas tank to ensure injectors are clean.

Does start like a champ on the second try?

 

[historiker]

Seafoam seemed to help, but I started to smell dying alternator as well. Im pretty sure that the alternator was draining my Amps, but I'm seeing better performance after the Seafoam.

 

[Canadian-ES-GT]

Don't know if its the same type of problem, but my car takes an extra 5 cranks only after: its been driven alot (a good 30 minutes or so), then shut off and cooled down so the engine temperature needle is just above the "Cold". Only when doing that the engine takes longer to start. It cranks fine and strong, just takes longer than if it where hot or cold. It also seems to be getting worse as the temperature goes down.
Should i also try some seafoam??