Well is has gotten freaking hot here in texas and over the last week or so I have started having some issues with my car.

1) This has steadily gotten worse -- the car takes longer to start. two or so weeks ago, the car would turn over 2-4 times then fire up after I turned the key (less than a second). This morning, it had to turn over for probably 4 seconds before it fired up. After it fires up though, its fine, no problems idling. It seems like this only happens when the car is cold, if the engine is hot it doesnt seem to act as badly.

2) I work on a college campus, so in order for me to leave work every day, I have to go less than 20mph, with lots of stop signs. When I leave for the day, every time I stop at a stop sign, the car will fall back to idle, stumble, then the RPMs will hop back up, and it will then come back down to idle. Sometimes its worse and stumbles twice, while other times it comes back to idle with only a little bit of roughness. It seems like if I am coming to a stop from higher than 30, it doesnt do this. Although, the 30mph stops also happen when the engine is all the way warmed up, which may be part of it.

3) Sometimes, when I get out of the car I can smell gasoline. I have looked under the tank, fuel filter, etc and I see no leaks. I am not losing gas at any rate that I can notice on my gas gauge. It seems like the smell is coming from the tailpipe, as if I am running some kind of freakin pig rich.

All these things have started happening over the last ~2 weeks or so. I have not noticed any loss in power, and there are no DTC codes on my interceptor (checked multiple times.) In the mornings it is 80, and in the afternoons it is 100+ right now in Texas, so i dont know if that has anything to do with it. I thought it might be a dirty MAF sensor, but I am not sure yet. Also, I had a thought yesterday, my battery has not been replaced since I bought the car in Oct 2006 (built in Oct 2005), but I dont know how a battery could cause these kinds of symptoms.

Anyone have any ideas for me to chase down?

 

Check your throttle body, could be dirty...

There is a sticky on the top of the 2.0 performance section that reads "IDLE PROBLEM CURED!"

 

Doh, for some reason I completely overlooked that, although I have read all the way through it before. I guess I will give that a shot this weekend. That was up on my list of things that I thought it might be. I should be able to get that thing off by just taking off the rubber elbow between my injen and the throttle body right? That should give me enough room to work...

 

Your going to have to completely remove the TB.. but yea... you should be able to just take off the coupler and move the intake out of the way.

 

Any special considerations for cleaning the TB? Just spray down the inside to get any gunk out of there? I guess if this is the problem, I need to get myself a catch can sooner rather than later on the PCV hose, I've been meaning to do that....

BTW: yes I feel like a total dork for missing the sticky, in case anyone gets the itch to flame.

 

Lol.. yea man.. just be very careful with it.. the butterfly can be damaged....

You can use a rag to get the gunk in the corners.. you'll know what i mean..

 

Ok, so dont move the butterfly too much?

 

just push it open to get in there too not gonna hurt it

 

Ok, so cleaning the throttle body fixed the idle problems, but I am still having problems getting the car to start when its cold. The battery is the original (car built in oct 05) and its getting into the 100's here now. Could the problem be the battery? In my other cars, if the battery died, it wouldnt turn over. With this one, it turns over for a while before it catches and fires up, is that normal for this engine?

I am also still having problems smelling gasoline. Could this be related to the engine getting flooded during the start?

It could also be a fouled spark plug I suppose, but the car runs just fine after its started. Idle is ~860-900, without stumbling or roughness, so I dont know if this could be the problem.

Any ideas?

 

I noticed today and last night that if I turn the key to ON and leave it there for 3-5 seconds, then start it, it will start just fine. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Sounds like it has to build fuel pressure before it wants to fire . Turn the key on and wait till the fuel pump turns off ......turn key off and wait a couple of seconds and see it the pump has to kick on again.

 

Your fuel pump could be on the fritz...

 

If it does have to kick back on, would this indicate the pump going bad, or a leak somewhere else in the system?

 

It's not holding pressure , the pump build up to pressure then should shut off. If it has to build pressure again after having the key off for a few seconds then something is up.

 

Would this be a bad pump if its not holding pressure? Maybe a loose fitting somewhere from the tank forward? although i dont see any leaking fuel

 

fuel leak somewhere, im guessing. I had a small leak in my last car and i had to "prime" it the same way..it was just building pressure in the fuel line

 

Well son of a bitch. I just crawled all the way under my car to find the underside of the gas take covered in gasoline residue. It looks like its coming from the top of the tank, where the fuel pump is. This pisses me off because I havent done anything that would remotely get close to messing with that thing.

Is it possible that I could have hit a piece of road debris and knocked a seal loose? I know where I am going to take this to get looked at, because I am not taking it to the dealer, not after the last few visits. I just looked up a fuel pump, $300 list, I hope it doesnt have to be replaced. I seriously hope its not the tank being ruptured or something, those bastards are $800 list.

Why does **** always break when you really dont need it to?

 

Johnboy, have you found a resolution to the fuel issue? I am having the EXACT same problem. I haven't crawled under the car yet to check what the tank looks like, but my fuel economy has not suffered at all, and I haven't noticed a major leak, however today when pulling out of my driveway I noticed 3 or 4 lines of something oil-like on the street. So after I pulled out, I put the car in reverse and double checked, and there was a fresh line. I ran my finger over and smelled it, and it's definitely gasoline. It doesn't appear to be any more than maybe 8-10 oz of fuel at most, but I haven't figured out where it's coming from. I never have a pool of fuel or anything in my driveway, so if it is a fuel leak, it's not a major leak. But when I get in the car, if I turn the key to the on position for the fuel pump to kick on, and I wait until after I hear it kick on and prime, then I turn the key and it starts fine. But if I try and start the car immediately, it will not start until the second or third attempt at starting.