Intermittent hard start.

Having a new issue with my 04 3.4L. Occasional very hard start. Like takes 5 seconds of cranking or more to start. When it finally starts it feels like it misses for a half a second and then smooths right out. Spark plugs, wires, fuel pump and filter were done about 2 years ago. Just put a brand new battery in it and also cleaned the throttle body. The really weird thing is that I noticed all my emissions monitors reset after the first time it started hard starting (this happened before I installed the new battery). I didn’t lose my clock or radio presets or anything like that but my monitors are now “not ready”. No codes. Anyone have any tips? Thanks in advance.

 

Swapping your battery will clear all the codes and tests

Are the hard starts after the engine is shutoff long periods 6 or more hours.

When the engine is shutoff briefly a few minutes.

 

Plug your MAF sensor back in

 

This happened before I changed the battery. The hard starts are completely random. It was around 20 degrees outside this morning, she started up just fine on first try. I shut it off after about 30 seconds and tried to restart it, hard start.

 

It’s in.

 

Time for a fuel pressure test.

It might be your losing fuel pressure when you shut the truck off causing a longer crank time.

Being intermittent a royal pain to find.

The question then is it the injectors leaking fouling the spark plugs .

In the tank allowing fuel to drain out of the line.

Good Luck.