Not starting on the first try

ERNDOG

New member
I have an 03 rubicon the problem is she won't start on the first turn of the key, but she starts right away on the second try, then she boggs for about 3 seconds then runs like a champ after that. I took her to the mechanic and he could figure it out. So I figured I'll just drive till she brakes. All pressure's are good and normal full pump runs fine so far. I have 33,000. miles on it so not many at all. Can someone help, thanks.
 

Turn the key to run and wait a few seconds, then crank and see if it fires right away.
 
I did and it still hesitates to start right away. I did notice sometimes when it is very cold outside like around 20's or 30's it will start immediatly. Like I said it runs great after it starts just am running out of ideas.
 

ERNDOG said:
I did and it still hesitates to start right away. I did notice sometimes when it is very cold outside like around 20's or 30's it will start immediatly. Like I said it runs great after it starts just am running out of ideas.

Funny that yours is doing that too.. I have a 93 YJ that does the same.. If it's ridiculously cold it's like hey let's go riding, but I usually have to try cranking it a couple times before it starts up. Let me know if you figure it out. =]
 
X2 on Bounty_Hunters suggestions. If the symptoms still exist after the bench cleaning, i would recommend that you do a fuel leak down test.
 

I see in other forums that a symptom like this is indicative of fuel i the fuel line flowing back towards the tank because of fault anti-leak valve in the fuel pump? I don't see where this is a replaceable part- I can only find the pump itself. A work around seems to be to turn the key on and pump the accelerator pedal very briefly, wait a few seconds, then start. This apparently gives the pump time to start pumping fuel and re-pressurize the line. My TJ just started doing this two days ago- started within the first second of cranking and now takes several cranks and retries- once running, runs great. Going to try the "wait" method here shortly.....
 
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