1999 Rover 620 (Honda 2litre engine, petrol)

Hi All ... What I thought to be "dampness in cylinders" in a previous post, has now become a little clearer ...

The symptoms are pretty straight-forward ... the car will not start when cold.
If I remove the plugs, heat them with a gas torch and refit ... starts first time and will run perfectly until the engine cools down again, then I have to repeat the process ...

I've followed the procedure for accessing the Fault Codes ( linking diagnostic socket with a paper clip) but no faults are registered.

Any ideas greatly appreciated ...

 

Tried brand-new plugs? Sounds like maybe insulator is cracked, or tracked, allowing spark to short to ground. When warmed up & dried off thoroughly, the short is gone. I had a similar problem with distributor cap. Tracks etched into the surface would short the spark only when the cap was cold & damp. They looked like microscopic scratches.

 

Hi Jim

Your advice seemed to make sense, so I found an old set of plugs in my toolbox, (that had been removed at last service), cleaned them up, and thought I'd give it a try ...

Started first turn of the key !!!

Lesson learned ... never overlook the simple things !!

Many thanks for the information ... will treat my "pride & joy" to a new set of plugs tomorrow ...