QuestionI hope you are able to help, I'm right on the brink of your limit! I have a 95 Olds Achieva 2.3L Quad 4. Recently since it has gotten cold, when I go to start my car, it idles rough for about a minute or so, almost like it wants to die, and then pops into a normal idle. After that, it runs perfectly fine. But, I can imediately turn the car off and back on and it will not do it. It only happens when the car has sat for a period of time. Then, sometimes it starts just fine even after sitting a long time.
It started doing this last winter, and I then had a spark plug go bad. After replacing the plug, it stoped doing it until now.
History: currently at 150K miles, head replaced at 105K mi, problems with minor and major coolant leaks since then yet they seem to have subsided as of the last 10K mi.
AnswerHi Curtis,
A quick cheap test would be to cycle the key to run, not start, but just run for about three seconds, then off, then run again....three seconds, then off. Then crank it.
That runs the fuel pump, and if it fixes the problem, the fuel may just be draining down out of the system.
If that has no effect, the plugs are an obvious possibility, since you already discovered that once.
Third possibility is a temperature sensor.
Not a sender for a gauge, if you have gauges, but a sensor, which will have two wires, not just one.
Van
