Hard starting when hot

In reply to drsmooth:

Thats a really tough one to diagnose. I will lock this one up in my noggin.

Amateurs!

Glad you fixed it

For others' future reference, I've had a bad starter power cable (the one from the battery) cause hot-start issues before. I replaced the starter for $150... no dice. I replaced the cable for $12... fixed. Externally the cable looked fine, if a bit old (after all, the truck was 16 years old). Internally, it must've been corroded or otherwise contaminated to the point where it had diminished conductivity when hot.

They have a tsb about hard start no start issues Under the dash (behind change holder/ l side) There are a bunch of grounds, clean them up Also the main efi relay under the hood going weak Hope this helps

In reply to warpedredneck: Thanks for the reply Warpedredneck. I solved (or so I thought) the problem. After a few weeks it returned. I tried what you said.... Starts on the first pull!!!

First of all, this is a real problem that affects Hyundai Accents, and possibly other models. The same problem has happened on 2 Accents I have owned, a 2001, and a 2005.

Appears:   It does not look like it's caused by the battery, starter or cable between the battery and the starter. The battery tests good when load tested, even when the problem is happening. Yes, it looks more and more like this is an actual vapor lock issue!

However: it's starting to look like a malfunction of a vacuum solenoid. (Looks Like) " A stuck vacuum control solenoid." When hot, the solenoid sticks. Then the car will not start, the starter turns really slowly.

Then when it cools down, the solenoid pops back to functional and the car starts right up. This is not imaginary.

I am tracking down the actual cause (part number and name of the part) and will come back to report what I find. I hope this information helps a lot of other people who are experiencing the same issues. No, this is not your imagination it's a real problem. But the cause is not what we usually assume (bad battery, bad cable, bad starter, etc) It's something else and I believe it may be vacuum related.

AMS

Always the overlooked temperature sensors.  Just a thought

Never heard  of vacuum anything on a modern car .   does this control vacuum or is it vacuum operated ?   What exactly does it do ?

Is this my first thread bumped by a canoe, or did it happen naturally? For the record the accent is long gone but it was actually a pretty decent car. The fix was the crank position sensor had gone bad.