Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) +4 GDI cold start

Check the battery voltage and if it's been out in the rain check the plug wells they tend to fill with water.

René, very evocative -- mine also (back when it started) would "shake like a dog fresh out of the water". Frankly I found it a bit charming, until I started worrying that all wasn't as it should be

The gunshot sound when starting is low battery voltage. An overnight charge should fix it unless the battery has had enough.

My GDI was bad on startup when cold - below 9deg C. As already said hold the tickover a bit fast to warm the engine up a quickly.
I made a cheat to increase the water temp reading by approx 2 deg C, this will weaken the mixture a tad. Now starts up better.

Torque app does sort of work. The addressing is not perfect so not everything works. The Lambda readings do work.

To reset the MIL light I use a cheap reset tool.

Do check and/or change the spark plugs, No 1 plug can get wet and rust.

Cheers
John.

Thank you Dave that is very useful info. I have one of those portable lithium ion jump start thingies, I will give that a shot in the morning.

Thank you John, I will check the plugs to see how they look.

I had the dreaded machine gun on starting only last week. I was kind of expecting it with a 14 year old battery. It did spoil my trip to Screwfix but at least it died in the garage. The battery was at 8.5V so ordered one up for overnight delivery.

My Duratec has a really low sub 10mA current draw when left untended. The battery will last for weeks without a charge. I believe the GDI is a little different with a higher draw so always use a float charger if left for more than a week or so. It’s easy to reduce the life of the battery if the voltage drops too low.

Thanks again everyone, a jump start did the trick, and I have tried Alan's and Tim's technique of holding at 2000 rpm for a bit and that indeed reduced René's "shaking dog" syndrome. Shocked by the volume of the, per Rog, "machine gun" racket on attempted start with a weak battery.

Will swap out the battery. Am I right that it can be lifted through the aluminium inspection plate behind left had seat?

Yes it can. Disconnect the black -ve lead first then the red +ve.Place caps from the new battery terminals on the posts to avoid any shorts.
The seat needs to be fully forward & seat back folded forward.

Yep thats the way to get it out! neg terminal first and tuck it out of the way. Good advice about water in the plug wells, especially no 1, front of car is no 1,it fills with water and eventually the water can capilary up the rubber boot and short that plug. This has a strange effect on the start cycle. Also take your plugs out every year and check/clean them. I know there are arguments re applying anti seize to the threads but do! use the alloy version rather than the copper slip as the copper can degrade the alloy threads in the head. Or use a graphite grease as there will be some graphite lube left even after the lube element has been burnt off. A previously fitted plug needs only hand/wrist pressure to tighten and a new plug you will feel the crush washer collapse and then a couple of degree's. Yep the duratec has tapered seats, just added this for those who are reading this and have the other type! If you are not sure use the advised torque setting which is very low so don't go cranking them up tight with your 1/2" ratchet wrench!
Spark plugs, well I've tried the fancy and expensive iridium plugs and the copper core..... v...cheap and quite frankly there's no performance difference and although they are supposed to exceed 100,000 miles they don't fare well in the duratec head so I change out the copper set every year and I find that the best way to go. Each to their own but when you've seen how the old plugs look when removed I'd rather be sure I'm on new plugs.

Fly by wire throttles usually have three positional potentiometers and if you get throttle issues it can be a dodgy one of those. Older variants can just have two fitted, not sure where the GDi is here but two can give strange throttle variations especially on start up.