The last two cold starts the engine starts and fires on three cylinders, with the engine light flashing for about 30 seconds and then goes off and fires on all four after gassing it a bit. No problem when the engine is warm. Car runs perfectly when on four cylinders. Car is 3years old with 10k miles. Fishy smell in reverse up very steep gradient see seperate thread. (possibly not related). Any sugestions?

Nigel

 

maybe its the infamous #4 cylinder problem that earlier s2k's had(00-01)...thats all i can think of.

 

Check the sparkplugs?

 

Spark plug issue with out a doubt.

 

I agree, try this first as my dealer who did the sparkplug recall forgot to clip in the plug wire correctly and that caused my car to misfire and run a CEL. Took the cover off and checked the wires and lo and behold, the connector wasn't snapped in properly. Fixed the problem right away. The smell may be due to heating the clutch up as you're trying to rev higher with 3 cylinders.

 

How did you know it was only 3 cylinders?. When the CEL flashes, you're not supposed to drive it according to the manual.

 

I had a problem kinda like this some times my car would run on 3 cylinders some times 4. If i reved it, it would some times fix the problem eventually it stoped all together. Turned out to be a bad injector.

 

xviper

I'm guesssing its three but could be only two but on two i think it would hardly run at all and be very lumpy. So far it has cleared itself after about 30 seconds, what do you think?

Nigel

 

I dont think it is wise to run the car at all. if the engine has a problem get it sorted out by the dealer. You would like it to be sorted out instead of leaving it and then having the 4# problem and having to replace something expensive

 

I think some of the suggestions here are a good starting point. It's got to be an ignition issue or a fuel issue or both.
Ignition can mean anything from spark plug to coil, etc. Fuel can mean anything from the injector to the electronic pulse that drives it. It could also be a valve issue on that cylinder. Or it could be any number of sensors that monitor all those things.
But the fact that you get a FLASHING CEL, tells you something is quite wrong and the car should not be driven even though the CEL goes off after 30 seconds. The code should still be in the ECU. Go get it scanned to see what exactly it is. Making the engine run for those 30 seconds might not be such a good idea.