why is my car so f*cking hard to start?!?!
 

See attached video. It isn't even very cold out (~45F) and it's almost impossible to start my car. It is pretty much the same during the summer too. One it starts, it runs like a champ. I have a brand new Braille battery, new spark plugs, new wires, new starter...Can someone take a look at my map and give me some suggestions? I am thinking its something with the Haltech (E6X). Thanks



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDhvwSq4U1w[/youtube]

Jesus H man. I have no idea, it definately seems like fuel/timing though.
I thought my car was bad, It compression tested fine, but on cold starts it will stall until it's been warmed up for a minute or two. I blame it on the Rtek.

Good luck!

Sounds like your starting map needs some work. Too lean... were you touching the gas pedal at all? What do your AFR's read while cranking?

thats kinda what i was thinking as well. when it starts stumbling, i will try to give it gas. sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesnt. hoping someone who has set these up before can look at my map and give me some suggestions

add more fuel to the cranking map

Definitely needs more fuel. I just ran into this with my megasquirt in the cold weather. I need to add fuel to the map. It reads really lean while im cranking and if I touch the gas it makes it worse.

cool...will give that a shot tomorrow. does the fuel map look correct as far as the shape goes?

I fixed mine by opening the haltech manual and reading about all the maps that get used when cold/warm starting the car. It took some time but mine starts up great from -25 to 105 ambient temp.

Wideband, haltech manuals and haltech usergroups on yahoo are your friend.

Good luck.

i am familiar with the maps. just looking for a few suggestions

What's your cranking timing?

Ahh, post your map, crap, can we even upload them here?

shit, i thought i attached it. here is the map. i am comfortable with the fuel part, just not messing with the timing yet.

The Halwin software won't work on my new computer so I can't look at your maps right now. Advance your cranking timing to 20 degrees BTDC for leading and trailing and see if that helps. The stock ECU runs at 5 degrees.

i cant look at the map right now either...using a win7 PC. will check that tomorrow

i went out and tried to start it again...i checked and the timing was already at 20 all the way across. i tripled the amount of fuel on the priming map and it was a little easier to start...still took ~10 seconds of cranking but better than yesterday. it was at 500ms at 55 degrees F. i cant add much more fuel, it's almost maxed out.

primer map!

Go into the coolant compensation map, and adjust that for the colder temperature.

Are you tuning via the Dos setup or the halwin setup ? ( just for reference ).

Also , what leading plugs do you have, and how old ?

thats what i used? http://files.haltech.com/downloads/p...uel.html#prime

should i be adjusting that map or the fuel priming map? both? i am using halwin and bur9eq's all the way around. there is maybe 1000 miles on them.

you may have to add more fuel in the base map at 0"-10" and 0-500 rpm

I just posted some more in the haltech section... also just to double check, you have proper fuel pressure when the pump primes right? Average seems to be 37-43psi

most EMS run off these basic tables even while cranking interpolated between each, some have more effect than others:

0-1000 RPM maps 0-5"Hg range
coolant temp correction
priming map
cranking map

some use either prime or cranking, should be the equivalent.

sounds like your timing is fine so just need more fuel. and as beefcakes suggested, check your fuel pressure.

yes, fuel pressure is around 40

the fuel priming map shoots fuel in when the engine starts to move, it seems to be exactly like pumping the gas on a carbureted car.

the coolant correction map is mostly to account for the difference in fueling when the engine is running but cold.

so the haltech seems to use the primer when the engine starts turning, and then its looking at the base fuel map, and the coolant correction.

i've usually gotten the car to run nicely warm, and then its easy to set the coolant correction map, and then the primer map.

also mazda defines cranking as anything under 450-500rpm (it varies depending on the year/model), so that value should be close to what you have in the haltech. the mazda ecu has a "start" pin, so it knows you're cranking, the haltech just guesses based on engine rpm

the FSM also states that timing is 5 BTDC during cranking. i've found that running more timing *might* start the engine faster, but it also slows down the cranking rpm, so my cranking timing map will be more like 10btdc, when its hot and closer to tdc when its cold.

and the most important thing, if the battery voltage drops under 11v to the haltech it'll shut off. so you need to make sure that the haltech is actually ON when you're trying to start the engine.

so the coolant correction map is only used for starting? i am going to go out and try changing the fuel base map once it stops raining. ive heard all sorts of timing values, i think im going to try somewhere in the middle ~10. i am sure the haltech is still on while cranking. thanks

no its used mostly when the engine is running at different temps. the primer map is for starting