My VS which has done approx 200,000km has started running quite rough for several seconds when first started in the morning. This was intermittent but the problem has got worse. A couple of days ago after driving all day I pulled into a shop and when I came out the car would not start at all except for an occasional micro firing. As I could not hear the fuel pump run when ignition was turned on, I suspected a faulty fuel pump. Car was transported to home and following a few checks the next day, I confirmed that the fuel pump was not working. Fitted a new pump after much cursing and away it went after a little bit of coaxing. Now it starts then immediately stops at first start in the morning. It does this 4 or 5 times before it finally runs. Once running all seems fine except for what seems to be a faint sucking sound. I initially thought it was one of the pulleys but it seems to get fainter after a few minutes. The car starts fine for the remainder of the day even if it hasn't run for several hours. I am assuming there is an issue with the cold start on a cold Canberra morning and that the fuel pump problem was just coincidental. I have checked the error codes and none except for 12 are showing. Any ideas would be very much appreciated.
I had the exact same problem with my VS V6 and I eventually tracked it down to being caused by the purge cannister solenoid, which is located at the back of the engine on the drivers side. At first I got no codes showing, but then I was getting code 97- cannister purge solenoid fault. I replaced the solenoid, $120 from holden, and its been starting perfectly ever since. It might be worth checking this if theres no obvious problems anywhere else.
