Rough start

Maybe somebody can help me. I have a 2004 2.2L Malibu. I am very happy with the car and have had no problems. However, I am concerned. Occasionally when I crank the engine there is a violent kick as if the wrong cylinder has fired at the wrong time. On the next try the engine starts and runs fine with no further problems. Any ideas?

is your problem by chance more like it sounds like your trying to start a car that was already on? and also sometimes the car does a long crank and shakes and wont start but then it will start at the next crank? if so your fine. my malibu does it. my friends equinoxx does it and i have a friend with a monte carlo his car does it to. its a weird chevy thing something about the starter solanoid. your fine the car wont leave you stranded.

No, it's not the same as if the engine was already running and the starter tried to engage again. Note that this is the 2.2L Ecotec engine. It's as if the cylinder has fired way before TDC and kicked the engine backwards. It only does this on occasion.

I've been researching this problem on the internet and have come up with this.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3828/is_200411/ai_n9469461/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1

It seems as if GM has used a weird and wonderful ignition system for the Ecotec engine. The newer 2.4 Ecotec engine seems to have modifications to the original system and I wonder if there is any connection to my problems.

Maybe somebody here who has a 2.2L engine could tell me if they have the same symptoms. Maybe a firmware/software update could fix it.