car wants to die right after I start it......, any ideas on what could be wrong?? Options

[Dragon_Racer]

Alright. Well sometimes, especially after my car has set for a few days or when its gotten pretty cold (but not every time I start it), my car wants to die right after I start it. If you can give it some gas before it dies, its usually alright then and will run ok. Any ideas on what could be wrong????

This post has been edited by Dragon_Racer: Mar 2, 2004 - 9:49 AM

[qatar11]

make sure your map is plugged in, and make sure the vacuum line is on there as well..

[sphinx]

yeah, kinda sounds like a small vacuum leak.

[Shortty]

Mine is doing the same thing.

Exactly - it will start up and hover at 1000rpm, then when i put my foot on the gas it will increase, but be lumpy, then when i lift off the rpm drops to 2 or300 and soemtimes dies, soemtimes picks up again. If the engine is warmed up for a couple of minutes the problem goes away. This sound right?

If so then i think it is the cold start switch. it could be egr, vacuum, etc. but i dont think it is, as you said it only happens when the engine is very cold. Which in the UK in winter is pretty much all the time!

The cold start switch can be bought from a dealer, and can be plugged in to replace the old one. It's meant to be easy, but i haven't done it yet as it's too cold to go playing around with it at the moment... irony is once it's warm enough for me to fix it, it wont really be a problem till next year!

Let me know how it went anyways

Shortty

[Digndoug]

ok, besides what they said, vacum leak.... Also check your injectors, an fuel filter, ihad this prob on my old dodge, it was injectors fuel filter an a the biggi a vacum leak...

[lagos]

i have the same problem but it only happens when its hot out. very odd.

what specific hoses should i be looking at?

[abatardi]

doubt it's a vacuum leak if it's only happening at a certain temperature. Plus with a vac leak idle should be better (getting more air), not lumpy.

Check anything to do with temperature... cold start, coolant temp sensor, etc.

- aba

[lagos]

my original theory was that the problem was with my batterie/altinator. when the car is cold, the colst start injector gives it the extra boose it needs to crank, but when its hot out the injector dosnt kick in. so it must be a starter/batterie or altinator issue.