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HI all, My car starts fine and the day before I had started it twice, unless, as happened jesterday, I turned the key and it slipped out of my hand, the starter turned the car over but did not have time to start it. Then afterwards the car refused to start. I disconnected the battery, checked the rotor arm and such but still it wouldnt start. I flattened the battery cranking the engine so much. I recharged the battery and tried again, still not starting, There wasnt a strong smell of petrol, indicating that it had flooded but I tried the starting procedure to clear it out. Then finally after alot of cranking it fired (lumpily) into life and started easilly this morning. Does anyone have any idea why, failing to start becuause I let the key slip would cause such an issue. (Immobiliser was ok, it wasnt immobilised). Oh and after it started, one tappet was stuck, but that seems to have cleared too now.

was it cold? perhaps your starter was frozen or something?

Hi,

The engine was cranking over on the start just fine (nothing wrong withthe starter), it just refused to fire.
The immobiliser light worked as normal, so it wasnt immobilised. Almost like it hadrun out of petrol (as after much cranking there wasn't a strong smell of fuel). After many hours when it finally started my neigbour said "Clouds of smoke out of exahust when it finally started. Since then I've kept hold of the key (kept it cranking until it started, just one or 2 seconds to start) and its been fine. Of course I'm now scared that its going to let me down again when I'm away from home.