This has been a normal ocurrence since I bought the car a year ago. When I start my car, it takes a about 4 to 6 seconds to start up in the morning when I first drive it. I then drive it, get it warm and it will start immediatly after I turn it over. Now for the weird part. After about 2 hours of letting it sit, it will go back to hard starting. Now I took off the air cleaner unit to see what the car would sound like without it. I started it and it started instantly after it had been sitting for three days. Now I probably know that it is a fuel mixture problem, but I wanted to be sure about that. Also, when it is hot outside and you are driving the car hard how high does your temp get. Mine will maybe touch the 210 mark, but no higher than that. Most of the time it runs at 180 if I drive for more that 15 minutes It seems that this car runs a little cooler than most so maybe that also could have something to do with it.
Thanks for the help,

 

Bump

 

Bump. Any thoughts?

 

I am a 924 owner here just browsing through. have you been over the very basics? I had some similar problems, I discovered I had a couple vacume leaks and my distributer was worn, I replaced my injector bushings, o-rings, distributer cap and rotor and am having a much easier time now, I am unsure if your car has them but I found that I also had a ruptured fuel accumulator (holds fuel pressure after shut off) replacing it also helped greatly (car would crank for 10+) seconds before this.

 

I never thought of the fuel accumulator. That sounds like it is it though I can't explain why taking off the air filter eased starting. Thanks for your thought.

 

Hey SPD,
what fuel system do you have?

 

MFI 2.4L, sorry I forgot about that on the last post