Questions and Answers

Hard Cold Starts Q. Vincent, Hope you can help me with my problem. I e-mailed you in the past about my car vibrating in the back when picking up speed and lo and behold, you were right, I had a bad tire. You saved me time, money and headaches.

I have another problem that has been going on for a few years and I hope you can help with this one.

It has to do with my car starting. When the weather is warm the car starts great and no problem at all. When is starts to get colder, it has trouble starting and have to turn the key a few times to get it to kick in. When the car has been used and is warm, will start up great.

I have been experiencing this for about three years and getting frustrated. Nobody seems to know what it is. I would like to go to the car one morning when its cold (and were talking between 30-50 degrees) and have my car start on the first turn and not putt putt, hesitate and grab for power.

I did last year have a oxygen intake valve replaced but I feel that has nothing to do with starting the car. Also when it starts in the cold, the car is grabbing for more power and sputters and acts like it wants to stall before it kicks in.

I went out last month to have an automatic car starter installed. It does great when warmer but when cold it does not want to start the car automatically and have to go and do manually. Why did I even bother spending the money?

Please help me out. I don't want to go through another winter with this problem.

The car is a 1996 Dodge Stratus, 2.4 liter with 84,000 miles. The car is in great condition. I baby my cars and take very good care of them. Oil changes, air filters and everything else done faithfully.

I'm desperate to get this fixed once and for all. Please help and have a great Thanksgiving.

Thanks,
Anthony

A. Some of the things I would want to check are the fuel pressure, air temperature sensor and coolant temperature sensor.

It is possible that the fuel pressure is dropping to zero overnight which would cause the engine to be hard to start in the morning. If it does bleed down, then the cause of the bleed down needs to be determined.

Since the problem seems to be temperature related, the most likely cause could be the air temperature sensor and coolant temperature sensor. It is possible that they are good enough not to turn on the MIL, but yet be out of calibration. If either or both of these sensors are telling the PCM the temperature is warmer than it actually is, the computer will lean the fuel mixture thus making the engine start hard.

If these things check out okay, it may be a problem with your fuel. From a Chrysler TSB dated November 21, 1997:

SYMPTOM/CONDITION:
Long cold start times, warm-up sags, hesitations, and driveway die outs. These symptoms are most noticeable and severe at moderate ambient temperatures between 4 - 27 degrees C (40 - 80 degrees F).

DISCUSSION:
Gasoline with a high Driveability Index (DI) can cause the above described symptoms. DI is a measure of the gasolines total volatility, or tendency to vaporize completely. A high DI number is less volatile than a low DI number. Most premium gasoline sold in the U.S. has a higher (worse) DI index than regular or mid-grade gasoline. Use of premium gasoline is NOT recommended for vehicles designed to run on 87 (R+M)/2 regular or 89 (R+M)/2 midgrade gasoline. High DI gasolines also cause higher emissions for the same reasons they cause driveability problems.

For vehicles that require an octane rating of 91 (R+M)/2, premium is recommended, or possibly required. Using premium fuel with a higher than recommended octane rating is not recommended. Owners who experience fuel related cold start and warm up driveability problems should try a gasoline with the recommended octane rating or different brands of gasoline until they find one that provides good performance.

Since this appears to have been a problem since the car was new, the fuel may very well be the problem.

Additional Information provided courtesy of ALLDATA