Cranking but taking ages to fire

Hey

My forester (98 stb, 230,000kms) is taking a lot longer than normal to fire and on cold mornings its taking a couple of attempts to get it to fire. It's cranking fast enough from the sounds, just doesnt fire. I checked the battery voltage and it drops to about 10v on cranking.

The plugs aren't that old, the cars had an afm, coolant temp sensor, fuel pump and a couple other things in the past 20,000kms to try fix a different issue it had.

The battery is pretty old (came in the race car when i bought it 4 years ago, unknown age) but 10v doesnt seem to bad according to the all knowing google.

any suggestions out there what it could be?

Go get the battery tested dude. Free anywhere that sells batteries.

whip out the cam & crank sensors and see if they're clean? no logged cel?

What fuel pump did you replace with secondhand or new walbro? If fuel pump not the issue then at 230,000 kms its most likely just worn out engine and down on compression perhaps.. Compression test?

Low comp = easier to start.

fuel pump was brand new walbro, maybe 20,000kms ago (from prowholesale so not a knockoff)

No cel light

I'll pull the cam and crank sensors tomorrow night hopefully, car runs fine as soon as it fires tho....

 evowrx said:

Low comp = easier to start.

Its not going to start if it can't compress the air fuel mix. It will turn over faster because of this.

 hijacka said:

Its not going to start if it can't compress the air fuel mix. It will turn over faster because of this.

Gotta be low for that tho.

Still say test battery.

What do the "battery experts" do to test the battery? any more than checking voltage on cranking?

I've seen it happen before. 230,000kms= rebuild will probably start with tow start if thats the case?

walbros aren't bullet proof either i would still check pressure..

You know you can have decent voltage with no cranking capacity ae? Just get it tested or swap bat with race car to check before you pull the car apart.

Well the car wouldnt start this morn, cranked too slow and drained the battery

I swapped the battery out of the race car and its still slow, It started at least but it still sounds real slow now. The race car battery is an Odyssey PC925MJT 330CCA, it starts the race car fine, even if i crank it for ages to get oil pressure etc and the race car was used on sunday so battery should be fully charged, voltages were 13.9v car running, 12.8v car off, 11.5v when cranking.

I'm starting to wonder if the starter motor is dying, not spinning fast enough/drawing too much current from the battery. how easy are the starter motors to overhaul brushes etc?

Pic of the starter will help. If its gear reduction 30 for plunger and contacts and 15min of your time.

They test the CCA(Cold cranking amperes) of the battery of that's too low; it just wont be able to do the job.