Starts on three and a half cylinders!
 

Aarrggh! My '97 Ti with M44 engine has decided, with no warning, to to mess around! All was well a couple of weeks ago when i parked the car. Yesterday I turned the key to be greeted with the sound of no compression and when the engine did fire up it sounded really rough, as though one or two spark plugs had been removed. It needed some throttle to get it to run, (it's never needed any throttle before), then cleared and settled down to a slightly lumpy idle. Did a compression test - o.k. 1, 2 and 4 at 250 p.s.i. and 3 at 230 p.s.i. Thought it may be a sticky valve or a faulty hydraulic follower so last night i put some flushing additive in and ran it for over half an hour. Also changed the spark plugs and air filter. When it's warm it starts no problem. Tried it again this morning. Same thing - starts on three cylinders then clears and will re-start with no problems. I changed the oil and filter this afternoon and will try starting the engine again in the morning. I'll do a compression test first. Anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions? All I did was leave it parked for a couple of weeks. Perhaps it just needs a good thrashing.

This problem is not unusual. It usually comes with cold weather and the general consensus over the years has been that it probably involves an air leak that's only occurs when the parts in the engine bay are cold. Check your vacuum lines including the ones around the fuel injectors. Good luck.

Carried out a compression test before starting my car. Perfect. So I tried starting it. Starts no problem with no throttle and revs cleanly. Left the car standing for another day and tried starting it again. Perfect again. Could it be the new oil working it's magic? Don't know, but it sounds similar to the problem described in another post "no start after moving car". Will be using the car this weekend so hopefully the problem has gone away.