I had the classic symptoms of a bad fuel pressure regulator. Engine had to turn over 10+ times to start. Also there was a puddle of fuel sitting under my throttle plate. I have 116k miles on the car. Went to the dealer and overpaid $140 to get a new one. Installed it and the hard starting instantly went away. Start right up on the first crank everytime
I was a bit taken aback by the price of the thing, so I ripped the old one apart to see what $140 worth of FPR looked like:
Here are the 4 main components. Nothing fancy, just a spring that keeps a diaphragm with a pin on it pushed up against a spring loaded ball bearing valve. The spring fits inside of the vacuum can part (top middle that is ripped open) and pushes the diaphragm up against the top part. Vacuum sucks the diaphragm down and lowers the little ball bearing.
Close up of the diaphragm with the pin:
Hard to see, but there are small cracks in the diaphragm. That was allowing fuel to be sucked through into the vacuum port. It also allowed all of the fuel pressure to drain off every time I shut the car off.
And one of the inlet side with ball bearing valve:
There is also a little plastic screen that fits over that ring of holes on the inlet side. My screen had the consistency of a damp graham cracker and fell to mush when I touched it.
All in all I feel this part is way over priced. But having a working one is necessary and I searched high and low on the internet for a cheaper one. I think $115 was the cheapest I found.
Just wanted to share,
Jeremy