95 gst problems starting in cold

slowbubblecar · 02-18-2006

The car in question is a 96 gst. Only mods are bov, 14b, and porting, none of which may matter. The other day I went to start the car. It started at no rpms and killed. This happened again and the third time it started and reved right up.

Later that day, it did the same when leaving work. When I left school the car started up fine.

Last night the car wouldn't start. It turns over a little at a very low rpm level. I haven't checked it yet today. Anyone have any ideas? Fuel pump going out?

**Halon** · 02-18-2006

I just went through this whole entire thing with my car. You have to have a few things to start the car. Compression, correct Air and Fuel ratio, and spark. You can check out my other thread to maybe get some ideas on what to do.

I guess I would start with making sure you have compression and spark and your timing marks. If that's all god, then you probably have a problem with your Air/Fuel. If that's the case, well then there's a whole can of worms that can be causing that to be wrong. Do you have a logger?

blageo23 · 02-18-2006

Dont forget about a weak battery. A weak battery will cause the starter not to turn fast enough, thus car wont start. Also how much gas do you have in the tank. On my Grand Prix one day it wouldnt start cuz I had like a 1/4 tank in there so the fuel lines froze. It is really chilly out there. Got some Iso heat or whatever its called and she fired right up. Also what oil you runnin? To thick of oil in the cold can cause a "drag" on the internal parts, causing the started to draw more amps. Thus why it may have started the 3rd time.

CVD · 02-18-2006

Are you doing anything with the gas pedal? On both my DSM and my Colt I have to do a "Cold weather DSM start." If it starts right away I have to immediately feather the gas to bring the RPMs up. If it does NOT start right away, or if it does and dies before I can feather the gas, then I put the gas pedal to the floor (to cut fuel) and crank it over. I still have to feather the gas after this. This works every single time.

If that works for you, your car is probably getting too much fuel at startup, and that could be a number of things. If you already are doing that and you still have problems, it may be a bad coolant temp sensor or a number of other things.

slowbubblecar · 02-20-2006

The battery is good and we have done the gas thing. The motor has 150 compression, the timing is good, the oil is mobil 1 10W30 and I have dsmlink. I had the car as a daily driver, so I didn't have anything adjusted for dsmlink. I currently have the stock, non-eprom ecu in it for now, but it had the problem with it also. It had plenty of gas and started up later without a problem. It just has the problem when it is really cold out.

**Halon** · 02-20-2006

Did you check check the coolant temp sensor? I don't know a lot about it, but apparently if it's unplugged, then the engine will think it's at a certain temp and adjust the A/F ratio to start at that temp, and if the sensor is either bad or unplugged, then you will not start because it will not be at the right A/F ratio. Might consider checking that. I'm not familiar with DSMLink, but on my logger I can check and see what it's reading, and I remember Swanny saying when his was bad it was saying some ridiculous off the chart temperature. So if my logger can check it, I'd think DSMLink could too. Maybe peak around in there and see if you can't find it and make sure it's reading a temp that sounds about right, and not like -100*F

TheBlizzard · 02-20-2006

The ECU will think the coolant temp is 600 degrees F if the sensor is shit. In turn it will not give the car enough fuel to start in cold temperatures. It can also cause a goofy idle if you do get in running in some cases.

**Halon** · 02-20-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBlizzard

The ECU will think the coolant temp is 600 degrees F if the sensor is shit. In turn it will not give the car enough fuel to start in cold temperatures. It can also cause a goofy idle if you do get in running in some cases.

Well there ya go! That's what I was refferring to, I'm just not as familiar with it as Craig was. Worth checking out!

john · 02-21-2006

Well went out to start it and it started the other day.... Not sure what the deal is but whatever. The car is started and runs fine now. It had a full tank of gas and the batt was still on the same charge. The car is what I would call stock so A/F should be fine. DsmLink is gone and the other ecu is in. The car has been near stock its whole life. I will swap the plugs and clean the filter again and see how it does. Thanks.

**Kracka** · 02-21-2006

Are you sure it just wasn't because of the cold?

TheBlizzard · 02-21-2006

Generaly when the coolant temp sensor is bad it will start when temps reach around 30 degrees F, anything below that and it has problems. It should throw a CEL though once it starts and runs for a little while.

CVD · 02-21-2006

Yeah, my talon had a loose wire on the coolant temp sensor. Any time it got below 5 or 10 degrees I would have problems and would have to mess with it.

slowbubblecar · 02-21-2006

Maybe it is a loose wire of something. I took the dsmlink setup out of it a few weeks ago because it really didn't need it, but before it never tossed the code and teh CEL has never come on. It is just when it is below zero when it happens. We were jsut trying to find out why that would make such a big difference.