Tough Start

Bostonian

Registered User
Hi,
I know this has been asked a dozen times before but I have searched and not found the answer.
When I first start my car for the day it stumbles real bad and sometimes stalls. I then restart the car and it is fine for the rest of the day. When it starts there is no smoke coming from the tail pipe. I had the plugs replaced and the fuel filter a week before this started. I am planning on doing the wires next.

Do you think wires are the problem or something else? Has anybody else had this problem? If so what fixed it?




Thanks in advance. I am new here enjoying this site.
 
Is it only after a cold start (been sitting for a few hours) or does it happen on hot starts also? Or is it only in th emorning?

I'd run some SeaFoam fuel system cleaner through it. Could be a sticking injector allowing fuel to leak down in the cylinder fouling a plug or plugs.

What did you gap the plugs at?
 
start

It has only been first thing in the morning.

I had the dealer do the plugs. When they replaced them they didn't do the wires. They wanted $175+ labor. I was checking the wires and noticed that the plugs were about to fall out! I tightened them and put the wires back on. I did notice that one of the boots was torn open but the hard starting started a few days after that. I am going to change the wires and distributor and rotor. I have an N/A 3.8.


I used a bottle of Techron cleaner three weeks ago. Wouldn't the car smoke if it was a leaking injector? Do you think it could be the wires? I am going to change them tonight and see if it happens in the AM. Thanks for your help.

Any other suggestions. The car runss strong after the start up. Could it be an IAC? Thanks
 
A leaking injector lets fuel into the combustion chamber. Smoking is not something you are going to see. Especially if the plug is fouled so the raw fuel is just dumped out the exhaust.

Check your oil and see if it smells like fuel in the morning. That would be a good sign of a leaky fuel injector. Also if you have to crank it for a while due to fuel pressure needing to build.

I would only consider the IAC if pressing on the throttle to bring RPM's up to 800 the engine smoothed out. That would be a sign of too low of idle.

but if it still stumbles when you give it up to 1k of throttle, it would have to be something else.

When you do the plug wires, I would suggest pulling the plugs and verifying the gap. I'm not sure what the N/A 3.8 should be gapped to.

You might want to check over on the TCCOA board as they have many more NA engine owners. This is the home of SuperCharged SC's.
 
I had a similar problem. It would be hard to start in the morning. Started perfectly if the engine was warm. Once winter came, the colder it got, the harder it was to start. I also noticed the coolant temp gauge was reading a little off, and the electric fan would come on early and stay on longer than usual. Turned out to be a bad coolant temp sensor, the one the screws into the lower intake manifold.
 
Still trying

Thanks I will try all these ideas. It did it again this morning. It sarted, stumbled and then stalled.
I restarted it and then it ran smoother but the idle was still not a smooth as normal. I cleaned the throttle body and Air bypass last night but it did nothing.

Thanks for all your help. I will keep working on this and let you know.

I plan on doing the wires, rotor and distributor tonight.

Thanks again,
Craig
 
Back
Top