Having some issues with starting the car quickly. I have changed out the coolant sensor twice within the last month and it helped for a short period of time. But now its back to hard starting again and excessive cranking of starter.
Any suggestion would be appreciated.
Thank you ahead of time.

 

Use OBD live data to see if anything is obviously not reading properly.

 

The 4.2L is a single ended system and the fuel pump assembly has a small check valve in it that is supposed to prevent fuel from draining back to the tank when the engine is shut off. These can misbehave and you end up with no fuel in the line when restarting the car. It is annoying but otherwise harmless since the pump is working just fine.

Symptoms would look like:
Longer than normal cranking and maybe some stumbling when it first fires.
Shut the car off from running then restart immediately and it fires right up every time.
Shut the car off with a hot engine and come back 20 minutes later to a long crank.
It can also be an intermittent thing, sometimes a long crank period sometimes not.

As a stopgap you can cycle the key a couple of times to run the pump through it's "prime" cycle more than once.

 

Hello and I need a little help - my xk8 cranks too much before starting- i changed out the coolant temperature sensor twice in the last month - it helps the starting but doesnt last long - not sure what might be causing the issue.
Thanks for any future advice.

 

What made you change the coolant temp sensor?

Any other symptoms?

Is it hard starting after sitting over night, a few days, right after a short/long drive, after sitting for 20 minutes, etc??

 

Its hard to start after sitting over night but its also kind of strange that when I put in a new coolant sensor it starts up immediately. Its makes me think the coolant sensor are being shorted out somehow.
Thank you for your questions and taking time to respond.

 

Ok great suggestions - I will try those ideas. Thank you.