I have replaced my starter, battery, negative power cable, and alternator. But still my car has a hard time starting both hot and cold. Mostly hot like if the starter is heat soaked. When its cold it will still start but it hesitates. Which should I go with first, heat wrap the exhaust pipe near the starter and put a heat shield the starter and add a new 2 gauge positive cable, or go with a distributor?

 

Change your fuel filter, then visually check your spark plugs, check your spark should be blue, check your timing base timing should be anywhere from 6-13 degrees advanced, check your fuel pressure at the rail. try each in that order.

 

I did a bit of both theory's today. I changed my battery cables to a 2 gauge and I replaced the fuel filter also the starter solenoid because I overtightened it and the plastic broke.

Same situation though. Its like the battery isn't putting enough juice to turn the starter to turn the engine but when its cold it will start the car, a little difficult but it will start. After driving it around for a few minutes to let the engine warm up and the generator charge the battery is when the car won't start for a while. The starter can't be heat soaked because it is new and when cold it should start with ease.

Also the only time it will start up easily is when it has been started up cold, ran for a minute, shut off, then start it back up. Other then that its been a bitch.

Next I think I should have the battery tested to see if a cell has fried.

 

Sounds like your timing is advanced to far... even when it wont start does the motor turn over fast or does it go...vrough,vrough...vroom. thats my sound of a motor only making a half a revolution.

 

It turns slowly.

 

yes your timing could be to far advanced... did you adjust your timing recently?

 

It was set correctly at a shop to pass smog a few months ago. Can the timing change itself since then?

 

Are you sure they set it correctly, Did it do this before it went to a shop?
It sounds like they advanced it to far or the distributor was installed a few teeth off and they advanced it until it ran okay.

 

They had to set it right because when I took it to get it smog, they used the timing light to make sure its correct with the mark to pass the visual inspection.

 

they may have not disconected the ecu timing control plug( thats what I call it anyway) do your self a favor and have your battery tested, if its not that then its your timing , theres a tech article on the home page on correctly setting the timing for these cars .

 

Problem solved.

The cells in the battery was bad for only being 6 months old. Battery was still under warranty so I got a new one. Everything is now fine.

 

buy the selinoid heat shield

cheap and easy

 

parasitic Draw?

 

what the hell is wrong with all you guys. He said 3 times the motor is cranking slowly. What in the world does that have anythign to do with the timing?! If you dont have a clue what youre talking about you really shouldnt say anything because you just make the situation more confusing.

megadith let this be a lesson to you that many people dont seem to understand. Just because something is new doesnt mean thats not whats broken. New parts are often defective so dont rule them out.

Also the simplest answer is usually the right one. If its not cranking hard you probably dont have enough voltage at the battery. Buy a multimeter. In the future, because i promise this will happen again, check the voltage at the battery while the car is running, should be more then 12 volts, like 13 or 14.

If its less then 12 volts then your alternator is dieing/dead
If its more then 12 volts the alternator is fine and your battery probably isnt holding its charge. Test the battery with the engine off and if the voltage is less then 12 then its the battery.

Timing too far advanced? lol wtf

 

I think if the timing is too far advanced the spark/combustion will fight the starter and if it's way too far advanced maybe it could cause it to turn too slowly and roughly to start very easily.

 

if the timing was that far advanced i would have to think your motor would make some pretty unhappy freakin noises, not just turn over slow.

 

I've heard peopel complain about this happening when they set up their distributors to have their timing locked out.

 

If the timing is to far advanced the motor will turn over slowly, Had the same problem with my car.

 

very sorry to hear about that brain fart of your there doug... but maybe you have just never seen a car running 34deg of timing locked out... the engine becomes very difficult to turn over... do to the high CR and the advanced timing... so hard that normaly you take one out of the picture... since you cant do away with the CR you must kill the ignition... i have a little SPST switch that cuts power to the dist until the engine has turned over a couple of times then flip the switch and fire the engine....

SAME thing will happen to any engine that has to much base timing... even yours... dont believe me go give your dist a spin and try and fire the engine

 

So are you an ******* in real life or do you just play one on the internet...... Timing advanced to far will make a motor turn over slowly when hot just like he described.... if running a high octane fuel the spark knock may not be as noticable.... but Im sure you know that cause your obviously much smarter than everyone else on this thread.... lol wtf

 

allright allright my comments were a little more then should have been said

No ive actually never heard a motor with the timing that far off that it just hesitated turning over. I still find it hard to believe that it wouldnt be popping and doing all sorts of nasty **** that would be more then obvious.

I apologize tho my comments were offside for sure, everyone was telling him its gotta be his timing, clearly missing the more obvious solutions

 

we didnt miss the obvious he had ruled the obvious out by claiming to have just replaced the battery


but yes you could advance the timing so far that it will actually kick back and cause some pretty good damage especially on the higher compression engines

 

just cause its new doesnt mean it wasnt ****ed.

Really its up to him to discern betwen good advice and getting sent on a wild goose chase, which luckily he did on his own

i still dont buy that a motor with way too much base would just seem hesitant, i still think it would try to start and pop and bang, but like i said ive never heard it, already apologized for my comments

EDIT: well ive been corrected, i was completly off base and should havekept my mouth shut, and was completly wrong

so i apologize, i didnt think that would be the case but clearly am wrong, no sarcasm, have had the error in my ways pointed out, so no need ot yell at me anymore lol

 

but you see what i was saying was HE said he replaced the battery in an attempt to fix the slow cranking... so it was already cranking pretty slow before the new battery... and really i have never seen a new battery drop a cell so fast... i have seen them drained and just seem like they have....

i think this problem will return shortly... if it hasnt already

 

i havent seen it in a battery specifically but ive seen so many people replace a bunch of stuff then wonder why their car doesnt work, but assume everything new couldnt be the problem

i agree in the first post he said he replaced the battery to try and fix the already existant problem

i ASSumed that that much timing would be a little more obvious, but asked a couple friends in the know and they pointed out how wrong i was. I guess thats why they say when you assume you make an *** out of you and me
or in this case just me

 

take your car to a shop

it is obvious to me that you want us to reach across cyber space and fix it

if you dont have any money and you cant wrench leave the third gen alone