| Subject: | cold start 93 eclipse 2.0 dohc |
| Question: | I live in Alabama. Its around 45 deg. here in the mornings and when i first get in my eclipse it is very hard to start. I have replace the themp. sen. and that didnt change a thing. The check engin light stays on with 4 codes 2 having to do with the mass air flow sen. When the car is warm it will crank right up but if its cold the thing takes some time to start it. Once i get it started its very rough in idling untill the water temp comes up. What do i do to fix this. Oh by the way i had to rebulid the head on this thing about 6 mounths ago. |
| Answer: | Josh, This is a pretty common question I get from people living in the south that experience abnormally cold weather. The codes that come up due to your MAF sensor probably are dealing with the Intake Air Temperature sensor(IAT). Your ECM is not used to experiencing that low of temperature, so it may behave strangly. The IAT is really just a variable resistor; the colder the air, the greater the resistance. And, the higher the air temperature, the less the resistance. That sensor may be going bad, or your ECM may need to be examined. The '90-'94 Eclipses had problems with their computer; the capacitors would leak and ruin the ECM. This was mainly a concern on the turbo models, but the non-turbos may have had these problems too. A simple fix you can try is to just remove the negative battery cable for about 15 minutes. That will reset the ECM. Most people how live in a warmer part of the country (like Alabama) use a 10W-30 motor oil. When the engine gets really cold, that oil is like molasses. It will not flow very well until your engine starts getting up to normal operating temperature. You should use a 5W-30 oil in the winter months as a precaution in case you get a lot of cold mornings. I've even used a 0W-30 synthetic oil(I live near the Canadian border). My Eclipse would start right up even if it got down to 5 degrees F. You should also check your anti-freeze mixture. If there's too much coolent and not enough water, your car will take a long time to warm up. If an oil change doesn't help, check your air filter, spark plugs, and
plug wires. Change your fuel filter if its been sitting in your car more
than 40k miles. Car batterys loose a LOT of strength when the weather
gets cold. Have you battery load tested at a garage to confirm its got
a good charge. |