Starting problem

[trondhb]

I have experienced some rather strange starting problems lately. First time in a washing garage after cleaning the car manually by hand and using a high-pressure water spray afterwards. Thereafter everything has been fine until a few days ago and then again until a few minutes ago at at petrol station after a refill.

What happens is this: the starting motor seems to kick in as usual, but right afterwards (maybe a second or so) is just stops again. If I then try to start the same happens again. I then wait a few minutes and starts the engine in neutral with the clutch and accelerator pedals both fully depressed. Then the engine starts as normal (but at high rpm, of course...) and when I release the accelerator pedal the engine keeps running at normal rpms. Everything seems as normal and I drive about 1 km home. Then when I stop the engine its starts again with the normal starting procedure. It looks like it's rather random whether the problem occurs or not from each starting attempt.

Any ideas what the problem might be and what has to be done to fix it ? Guess it's not good to start a cold engine at high rpms repeatedly... That said, 2 of 3 times the problem has occured after a short stop after having started the engine normally not many minutes before.