Hello, My name is Bob and I am from Fresno, Ca.
I just bought my daughter a 1990 RS V6 automatic.
The car drives great and is in very nice condition.
The problem is I know nothing about these cars
and we have a starting problem and I do not know where to start so I was hoping someone may have a few ideas , Here goes: The car will start a few
times no problems at all turns right over then
all of a sudden the next time you try it will not
do anything at all no click no nothing......
then you can let it sit for a hour or two and boom it fires right up . Last night I drove it for about a half hour then it sat for a couple hours
and nothing! this morning it started no proplem.
It seem to happen after it gets warm....I was thinking it may be in the ignition?...
If anyone can help please let me know!!
Thanks for your time, Bob

 

This, of course, is just one possibility, but sometimes the heat given off from the engine can adversly affect the starter motor on our cars. I do not live in America, but from what I have heard from some of the people on these boards, you can get some kind of heat shield for the starter motor which stops it from overheating.

Hope this helps you, and welcome to the boards.

Si

 

Heat soak on the starter maybe..... That or the VATS system come to mind.

Starter heat soak means that the starter selenoid (switch built into the starter that when you turn the key, electricity is sent to it and this it engages the starter motor) soaks up the heat opff the exhaust and thus when you turn the key ... it sits there like a dud till it has to cool off. But if your saying you let it sit for a few hours then thats a factory against this theory.

The next thing is the VATS system which is a anti-theft system that uses a chip on the key to allow the vehicle to start. Sometimes it wears out (like mine is) and when you go to start the car .. nothing happens. However I havent seen a case where it happens so frequently that you can guess when its going to happen. Mine does it every month or so and i just let it sit 15 minutes.

hope i can help and explain a little bit.

EDIT :Man just as i was typing that to ... lol .. 4 min apart.

 

I'd say heat soak as well. It tends to be more prevalent on V8 cars though. It happens to me a lot. It's definitely time for me to get some sort of mini-starter.

 

Two other things to check that are not heat soak.

Look under the dash where a previous owner might have had a car alarm or something like that wired in the starter circut. Did they hook the wires back together and use a lighter gage wire somewhere ?? That happened to me and it did exactly what you are experencing. When it got warmed up, the lighter gage wire would not carry the load. I replaced two starters before I found that one. Next, play with the key when starting. Turn it really, really slow. If the electrical switch is worn, you might have to have the key turned just the right position to make it start.