Dear all,

I've got an interesting problem with my 1996 850 wagon (110K mi, 5-speed). Starting is slower than normal ONLY after sitting a few hours. After sitting overnight, or immediately after shutting off, starting is completely normal. By normal, I mean the engine catches after a couple cranks and immediately revs (this is withour touching the acellerator of course). When it's slow, it takes noticeably longer (up to 5 sec or so) and doesn't rev. Rather, it catches and runs roughly at low speed for a little while.

The car runs completely fine in all other aspects. Engine is smooth, power is good, etc., etc. All recoomended maintenance (fuel filters, spark plugs, etc.) is up to date. Looking at posts here, one possibility seems to be fuel pressure - but that doesn't jibe with the fact that starting is fine after sitting overnight. My mechanic says it's probably some sensor or another starting to fail, but there is no check-engine light and corresponding code, so it could be a long drawn out trial and error process to find the culprit.

I'm wondering if anyone out there has noticed the exact same problem and can help pinpoint the exact sensor, or other cause.

Any comments much appeciated!

jjmcc