The other day my car has been having issues starting. Sometimes it doesn't start (ie cranking but not starting) i then have to add some throddle and eventually it starts, blows a bit of black smoke then. It appears the engine might be flooding with petrol and i need to give it more air to compensate?

I have booked the car in already to get it looked at but i'm puzzled, could this be an actual injector that is cause the leak? I really didn't think that is common on these cars.....

Also appears to struggle to hold am idle around the 800rpm (sometimes)

Could be fuel pump

Does everything else check out first? Air filter, MAF, throttle body clean, no vacuum leaks (vac lines and gaskets) are all your electrical connections good and clean?

No other problems with the car?

Has it always been like this, or did something happen just prior to it wigging out?

I had my injectors ultrasonicly cleaned last year, car had done 130,000km at the time. I had dirty injectors but none of them faulty. I'm not saying a dead injectors isn't a possibility, just think it would be a good idea to rule out the simple stuff first.

a dirty injector can be held open just enough for the fuel rail system to bleed in to a cylinder, and when you turn the ignition on and the fuel pump primes up, that same injector/s will allow fuel back in to the cylinder. so essentially you are flooding the engine

are 3.5l injectors the same as 3l? Is it worth picking up a set from a wrecker to try out?

are 3.5l injectors the same as 3l?

No they're different: 3.5l injectors are marked CDH-275, and the 3l injectors are CDH-220 if I recall correctly.

well as i was driving today i got a check engine light on the dash - and then once i turned the car off it disappeared the second time

any input would be good.....

Well, the only thing I've ever left "disconnected" and still had the car running (be it not very well) was the MAF. Check engine light was on.

What I'm aiming at here is; check for dirty/loose electrical connections, specifically in the engine bay somewhere. The engine light doesn't come on when an injector is dirty.... pretty sure it doesn't come on when an injector is dead either?

There's a large plug just in front of the intake manifold, to the right looking at the engine, that I'm pretty sure your injectors hinge off - check/clean that puppy. Do the "easy to get to" connections first, try it and then go back for the ones hidden around the place.

likely to be an - idle stepper motor?

Seems like it might be related to the auto choke kicking in at different times etc....