VS V6 Duel Fuel - Hard Starting.

[VNwazza]

Hopefully someone will have some idea on how to fix this...
My ute is getting hard to start. Before I would turn the key and it would fire up instantly, now it cranks for about 10 seconds. It is like this starting when selected in petrol mode and gas. If I turn off the motor and re-start it insant start, but leave it 10 minutes and it is cranking. It is like the fuel is missing.
I don't know if this is related to the above problem...
Since I owned the car, it has had the engine warning light come on for a short time when cold. Not when first started, but when driving when warming up. It does it more when the weather is cold. The more colder the temperature is, the more often the warning light comes on, and for longer.
Any expert opinions?

[emir3008]

exact same problems with my dual fuel vs calais...

massive pain in the ass.

[TheIceman]

probably stuffed leaking injectors flooding your engine once they are left for a while to fill up your cylinders and has to crank for a while to clear the excess fuel before it starts.

[VNwazza]

Thanks TheIceman. I will change over the injectors, as that sounds very likely. It has only come on recently though not gradually. But it could well be the problem.
I did the error code paperclip trick yesterday. It came up with a lot of errors.
35 - Idle Speed Error.
45 - RH O2 Sensor Rich.
57 - Injector Power Supply Voltage Variation.
65 - LH O2 Sensor Rich.
85 - ??? Unknown code ??? (maybe auto trans code?)
76 - Air/Fuel ratio variation between left and right banks.

1. Sifting through all the posts, on this forum, I have found out about the grounding problem with the O2 sensors, and discovered the easy fix for this.
I will do this, then fit new O2 sensors. This may fix codes - 45, 65 and 76.

2. Code 35 - Idle speed variation - (Closed throttle idle speed is more that 75 rpm above or below value for more than 45 sec.)
I will clear the logged errors by disconnecting the battery (will check if this is how to do this), and see if this fault was due to the O2 sensor fault. It may need the throttle body to be cleaned also.

3. Code 57 - Injector Power Supply Variation, This could be due to faulty injectors as pointed out by Iceman. Will see if reappears after the O2 sensor fix.

I will do some more sifting through the posts about Code 85. Also try and find out about the Code 57, as this could be another problem.

Also just as clarification, the vehicle is a '99 VS series 3 ute. I hope that I should be looking at VS codes, and not VT codes. Perhaps that is why 85 doesn't appear in the list...

more searching...

[VNwazza]

I did the bad earth fix on the O2 sensors, easy job.
Reset the codes. Been starting on Petrol, and starts instantly.
Drove at about 60k's and then increased to 100. No warning light.
Return trip, warm up for 2 minutes, on petrol, start driving increasing speed to 100k's.
Warning light comes on.
Get home and check the codes, which are;
45, 57,65,76.
The warning light came on about three times, and when engine reached operating temp, no light.
Would new O2 sensors fix this?