well as you can see once again I appear to be in a rather frustrating situation in which my dear donna will not start in the rain at all. Nothing works, that I can think of, and with winter coming and this being in a country that it rains more often than not. This is really starting to become a problem especially since she is my only mode of transport throughout the winter. I think it is just all the damp stopping her from sparking (ie just shorting straight to earth if that makes sense), easy start, forgive me I was desperate, doesnt work, she has electronic ignition and I dont have a hand crank, nor a garage to store her in but I have put her winter nose on. I managed to get her ticking over very slowly for a grand total of about 10 seconds with the choke fully out before she just gave up and thats all the life i've had out of her for the past week... although this afternoon in the sunny weather she was fine.

This is my first winter with a 2cv and I'm probably doing something stupid, but some advice would be greatly appreciated as to how to get (and keep) her running over the cold and damp/snowy period.

How old are the plugs, HT leads and coil?



Still a bit warm for that - 10-15degC is the point you want that.



Does it actually need the choke?

It sounds like you need to check the compression first. If it's firing and running - albeit lumpily and reluctantly - then you've got fuel and a spark, however feeble the spark is. It sounds to me like it's firing on one cylinder; this is less of a problem in the warm weather since the engine can use the higher ambient temperature to help ignite the fuel/air mixture. But the colder weather will show up any problems.
You could try a new coil, HT leads and sparkplugs, but I'd say your best bet is to compression test the engine and, if it's low on one cylinder, you'll need to fit (at least) a new set of piston rings, lap the valves in and clean up the heads. At worst (depending on how badly worn your barrels are), you might need a new set of barrels and pistons, which will make a huge difference not only to how easily it starts but also to how well it goes.
There's no reasion whatever that these things have to be poor starters in the winter: like any other engine, if you've got good compression, fuel and a strong spark, they should start first time on the coldest morning. Good luck!

totally agree with this, I never use mine. ever.

Advice re. the choke is good, too, I missed that first time around.

reluctance to start in the cold less likley to be coil more likley to be leads condenser&points, then plugs

if carb is out, either too rich it will flood as the vapour condenses on the way down the inlet and arrives at the head as biger droplets

too lean and the ropey ignition may not have the juce to fire it

old oil will be like treacle and the battery will be supplying all its power to churn the starter

decent condenser leads 10 yrs old and plugs at the wrong end of service life, mine still started under a foot of snow

its probably not any single item but just a combination of a few

Sean

Not to forget low compression will also make it harder to start in cold conditions

Think simple first. Don't get sidelined into taking the engine to bits. If it ran OK last week then its going to be something simple.

See above^^