TwinTurboTerror

er...

The symptoms:

Car would only fail to start when the engine was hot.

Absolutely no problems when engine was cold, even when left outside overnight in the winter.

My question: Why would a hot engine cause any of these items to temporarily fail, and which of these items is it likely to be?

The reason I've narrowed it down to these 3 items, BTW, is that today my car failed to start completely after I had shut it down earlier.

Usually, it would fail to start for ~ 15 minutes, and then I could start it up again.

After trickle-charging it for a few hours, however, I was able to start it back up again.

The only DTC I have is a low-voltage battery code, but as I understand it, that doesn't necessarily rule out the starter or alternator...

TIA.

TwinTurboTerror

P.P.S. FWIW, the hotter it gets, the worse the problem gets. Not sure if that's a sign of anything..

inliner311

grounding problem with the battery?

visintainer [vis]

do you get the low voltage dtc everytime?

biturbowagon

On motorcycles, that can often be a cracked coil. No idea if that applies to cars.

visintainer [vis]

what about something getting heat soak? solder connection breaks and comes back when cool

TwinTurboTerror

Yep.

Bluesuede

do you hear the starter attempt to engage or is there just a clicking sound or a grinding sound when you try. This sounds like a typical starter problem. If it was the alternator the battery would be totally dead, and you couldnt start it. If it was the battery, same thing. So that would leave your starter.

quickaudi:STFA

Here's the reason I ask: I had an alternator, and so did one other person on here, that didn't have any problems charging when cold. If you tested it on a tester for 2 hours, it wouldn't matter.
As soon as it rode in the car for 30 minutes, bam! Low voltage.