Hey guys I've just started having trouble starting my car here. It started last week. The car sat for 2 days without being driven and wouldn't start. Ok i can see where that might be a problem. So after 3 tries i jammed the pedal to the floor, it spit and sputtered and finally started. I went out this morning to start it. Just drove it last night. Again it took 3 tries and i had to jam the pedal to the floor. Seems like once i start it once for the day it'll keep starting ok. But if i let it go for any period of time it won't start very well. I'm thinking this could be the plugs or wires but the car has 97,000 miles on it and i replaced them at about 70,000 miles. Any ideas?

Something to get you started. Recheck the plugs & wires; change out the fuel filter, then check the fuel pressure regulator (remove the vacuum line and smell for gas, the diaphragm may be bad, also check for vacuum). If this does not help, connect a high pressure fuel gauge on the rail and check the numbers against your service manual (incoming and/or return line may be clogged). Good luck.

So if I understand this correctly, you have a hard time starting the car when its cold? Because you say if you let it go it wont start well.

This can be caused by quite a few things. For one the ECT can cause this. Reason being if it thinks the car is hotter than it is, it will send out less fuel, therefore not rich enough mixture to start it. You need more fuel to start when cold, as oppsoed to hot because it doesnt adomize as well.

I would see using a temp. gun what the ECT is reading when your having a hard time starting it. It will give you a reading in volts. Now using a spec sheet it will say at X volts the temp should be X, if they arent close and are far apart than it is your problem.




- 2004 Cavalier - 124k, owned since new

well well well. what do you know ... I have the exact same car (97 cavy 2.2L --- even the same colour) and the exact same problem. I also have the solution. in fact even a few choices for you

It will always start after you disable the fuel (flooring the gas pedal while cranking) and then start after you let off the pedal halfway ...

I always thought that it was a weak ignition coil / module and never bothered changing it as this only really happens in the winter time in particular when damn out.

Then all of a sudden an injector started to leak. Damn bottom feed injectors.

Im guessing that whenever it sat for long enough, it caused a minor flooding condition in one cylinder that when coupled with the cold (this wont happen in the summer except after a rain) will cause a no start on the first couple of cranks, which then causes a flooded no start.

In short the issue here is this:

1) small amount of fuel working its way past injector seals into cylinder always
2) fuel seep into cylinder causes loss of pressure in fuel system to all injectors
3) when coupled with one of the following will cause a no start
i) Cold causing weaker battery and spark conditions
ii) Dampness causing stress of weak wires and or ignition components(coils/module/plugs)


Here are your choices.

1) Change your plugs. In your case since you cant smell the gas you arent getting that much loss in pressure in the fuel system, therefore you have to only overcome 2 of the 3 above and will be able to start on the other 3 cylinders
2) Change the Orings and or injector that is causing the problem. This can be tricky to find out which is leaking unless it starts to leak externally. When it leaks externally on teh bottom feed injectors it is almost leaking from the injector itself and not the exterior o ring seal.

Change your plugs and it will start fine. Cheaper solution that you can do every year if needed.