Has any one else experienced this problem before on their cars and if so how did you resolve it.

Sometimes when I go to start my car it will start up, idle perfect for 2-3 seconds and then just cut out randomly. This generally will happen about 4 times in a row and then the car will absolutely refuse to fire up at all.

Then the strangest part is if I let it sit for a couple minutes boom fires up first time absolutely no issues. Other times it will still refuse to fire. I've never waited longer than around 15 minutes because by that stage its generally decided to work.

Should mention that the car turns over fine, the battery is near new, the fuel pump can be heard priming when the ignition is turned on.

Also, this has never happened in the morning when the car is cold, it only seems to occur when I leave work (car parked in the sun for 8 hours), or the car was recently driven. So I think that heat must be a factor here or its just been a coincidence.

I should mention that the car drives absolutely perfect and has never cut out or died once the car is running.

At first this issue didn't really bother me because it probably occurred 1 or 2 times in about 5 months (starting the car probably 4 times a day). But in the last 2-3 weeks its probably occurring every 2-3 days (starting the car 4 times a day). So again I'm not sure if the hotter weather is making the problem worse, or the part/fault is wearing and becoming worse.

My thoughts so far are;
-the alarm system (standard brant)
-the keys (not the original, were replaced and reprogrammed about 3-4 months ago)
-something in the ignition barrel
-faulty earth or wire connection somewhere, maybe the starter

__________________
A man in nature;

"All in relation to nothing. Nothing in relation to infinity. A central point to both, And infinitely far from understanding either."

check the main earth on the top of the manifold it tight, mine wasn't & gave similar non start issues, i only found this out after replacing the fuel pump control module, which is what it could be too

it was only a bit loose too, enough to have a break in contact once the engine had heated up

although i would be getting the brandt checked out after checking the earths

Cheers mate i'll look at that tonight, I've only ever lifted the bonnet and fiddle with whatever wire I could grab once and the car did start after I tried that.

Unfortunately no way for me to know whether I touched a loose earth or something somewhere and it fixed it, or the car just stopped being a little bitch.

__________________
A man in nature;

"All in relation to nothing. Nothing in relation to infinity. A central point to both, And infinitely far from understanding either."

Most likely the Brant it was made be satan

I had a verrry similar problem which turned out to be the Brant. Only difference was that the Brant would sometimes not engage the fuel-pump, hence it would turn over momentarily until lack of fuel pressure cut the engine. So maybe have a really close listen to how long the pump is priming for, and if it is actually priming the times your car does this.

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Now handles like a cat on carpet

yeah, I'd kind of hoped it wasn't the brant system but I suppose given how temperamental the issue is its looking more likely.

As far as the fuel pump priming I don't think that's the issue. I mean I don't know what the fuel pressure is, but the pump priming is easily audible with you turn the key into ignition. If the car the doesn't fire up you can even here the pump run for 1 second after you've stopped turning the key.

The thing that leads me to the brant is that as said the car has never faulted whilst driving. Never cut out, never showed any signs of fuel starvation. The issue is only directly linked when starting the car.

I'm also more tempting to think that its something alarm/security related because of how the car will start, run for a precise amount of time then cut. the time it takes to cut out is identical. and although I haven't counted how many times I'd say you can have is start and cut 4-5 times and then you have absolute zero chance of it firing if you continue with the key. Almost like some sort of fail safe that alarm system has that prevent the car for starting for a period of time.

__________________
A man in nature;

"All in relation to nothing. Nothing in relation to infinity. A central point to both, And infinitely far from understanding either."

Do you have a spare key? Can you try with a different key.

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[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Should have bought an STI

I do have a spare and I've switched to that today will monitor for a week.
If there's no change checking earthing will be next.
Brant system
Fuel Pump

__________________
A man in nature;

"All in relation to nothing. Nothing in relation to infinity. A central point to both, And infinitely far from understanding either."

Sounds like an immobiliser issue to me

Hmm more likely to be the brant system I think than the keys themselves.

As I lost the original I got 2 new ones cut and reprogrammed. The issue was present before this albeit not as prominent.

__________________
A man in nature;

"All in relation to nothing. Nothing in relation to infinity. A central point to both, And infinitely far from understanding either."