So i finally hit 100k in my car and i have been starting to do some preventative maintenance to keep it out of the dealership that has done nothing but dick me around. Its funny ever since i have been doing the work my self everything is going smoothly. One of the things that i recently did was to remove and clean the throttle body as well as replace the seal. HOWEVER, it has been getting into the lower 20's here in Michigan and i have noticed that my car is having a hard turning over on first attempt. It will try and fail then on second try it will fire right up and run great. When the engine is warm i can shut it off and turn it back on with no problems. I am curious as to what factors may play a role in my car starting as it is. I have recently bought a new battery, changed the plugs, cleaned the throttle body, and am going to soon change the fuel filter. Is it possible that the throttle body is overtightened and is causing this problem? DOes it sound like a fuel problem? Anyone have any idea as to what is going on? I have always been paranoid about this car for the fact that it has around 25 pages worth of work that the dealership has performed under warranty. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a bunch!

Chris

 

I had a similar problem, ut it had nothing to do with being in the cold.
I had a cracked fuel pump modual (GM Says it happens when the car is registered in certin states go figure how they got that to effect a failure) With the cracked pump module the fuel system wasnt holding its prime for very long. Check for a fuel leak under your rear end, by the fuel tank. But wait till all the melted snow / salt/ water thrown up there dries otherwise you wont be able to tell the leak from the melting snow. Or you could try checking your fuel pressure.
Put a fuel pressure tester on, Turn the key to ON: Pressure should go up to like 50 or so psi. Then the pump should kick off
and pressure should go down really SLOW or not at all. Should not drop more then say 1 psi per minute I think.

 

Rut Roh Raggy sounds like this might be a bit of an expensive venture lmao. Thanks man i will let you know what i find out in a couple of days here when i have the time to check the pressure. Naturally everything starts to fall apart around finals time. On the other hand how crazy difficult is it to change one of these bad boys?

Thanks again man.

Chris

 

i had something similar, it was my o2's that were shot

 

Indeed... if the heating element in the O2 sensor goes bad it can cause the sensor to read incorrectly until it warms up to operating temperatures.

 

I will certainly have to check that as well. thank guys i appreciate the input.

 

Have you used a scanner to check to see if you are throwing any trouble codes? That might also help you narrow down the search.

 

Def do this, even if no CEL.


Mine didn't throw a code for the fuel thing. That was FREE BTW because my car is registered in one of those states listed in their special recall / policy thing for it.

 

the o2 sensors dont work on cold startup the engine has to be at a certain temp before they start to work and the engine has to run for so many seconds before the car will hit closed loop

 

i did have a vid of mine doing, but cant find it now, mine would start and hit 1500rpm(cat warm up) and stall out all within a few seconds. mines was the o2( cel on, clear cell, cel came back with stock DP) just my 2 cents, in for results tho