I have an ancient Ka, (2003) which has been, and still is pretty reliable. Recently, however is suddenly became hard to start when cold. It had previously been fine at starting, and still is when warm. The mechanic guessed it might be the crank angle sensor and tried replacing it. No effect whatsoever. (Except to my bank balance!)

Anyone have any suggestions as to what else it might be?

Lamber sensor on the exhaust ?

Thanks for your suggestion Mark. I'm pretty ignorant about cars, but would that cause this problem? I thought the lambda sensor had to do with reducing emissions?

is it diesel (if they do one). my berlingo diesel is harder to start in cold weather as the diesel "thickens".
Cold often means damp--so i would start by spraying leads etc with WD40.
Plugs, points.leads can play up when damp especially if they are slightly damaged/out
Then a free battery check at a car parts shop
Failing that an diagnostic tune might show up faulty electronic ignitions. Might be worth a call to Wirral spark plug centre and see what they may be able to do
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Could be a few things - could be a temp sensor so it isnt allowing a little more of a rich mixture to start from cold....

Could be damp in any of the electronics (Im guessing its new enough to have a coil pack)....

I'm old and not very good at starting when it's cold. :-)

Take care not to spend good money after bad.

Thanks everyone. It is petrol not diesel, and as the trouble came on suddenly one day for no apparent reason about six weeks ago after years of reliable starting in all weathers I don't think damp is causing the problem.

I suspect its something that has failed, and it is something that only affects cold starting. The effect is that it turns over briefly with no sign of firing. You try again with a foot on the gas and it fires. If you immediately remove your foot it stops, but perhaps three or four seconds of moderate reving (1,500 rpm maybe?) you can take your foot off and it idles perfectly sweetly at 1,000 as usual.

It's pretty old and dates back to 2003, so its not worth spending serious money on curing what seems to be a tolerable irritation. But if a simple solution is possible I'll take it. I will look into the wirral spark centre though.

Get a new mechanic. Never use one who is throwing parts at a problem at your expense based on their best guess or previous experience.

A diagnostic check would be a good place to start, followed by a live scan of engine data. Sound complex and expensive but I do that on Peugeots and only charge £15.