charliegt

Recently I have noticed that my AWS does not work most of the time. I have also been having trouble with warm starts... Here is what happens:

About 1 out of 20 warm starts the car will start, shack, and stall. Then it won't start for a few tries. Eventually I can get it to start and stay running by applying full throttle. Even with WOT the car only goes up to about 2k rpm and runs rough, then after a few seconds it revs normally and everything is fine.

I have done a compression test when the engine is cold and both chambers matched up at 90psi which,from what I've read, isn't too bad and especially since the engine wasn't warmed up.

I've read that the warm startup problem could be an issue with the fuel pressure regulator, could these be causing the problems with the AWS as well?

Thanks,
-Charlie

tcb100

Charlie, the AWS should only function when the coolant temp sensor tells the ecu that the coolant is less than 104 degrees. Then it closes.

I think it just adds idle air to the limited amount of idle air that the idle speed control solenoid can provide, to briefly run up the revs. It should not function at all when the car is warm, only at cranking and warming up until the cut-off temp is reached.

You could unplug it and put a meter on it and check the resistance, but I don't see why it should have anything to do with warm start problems.

If the car starts while holding your foot to the floor, it typically means the car is flooded, so why would it flood? Leaky injectors? Bad regulator? Those problems are above my pay grade.

Good luck.

rzograbian

ok, your water seals might be gone inside your motor.. warm up the motor and then do a compression test.. if you have hard start problems, thats definatly a sign of a motor ready to give up! warm the car up to temp and let it cool down for 10 minutes... then, take off the spark plugs and do a compression test.. it should still have over 80 psi.. if its lower, your water seals are going..... also, check for signs of oil and water mixing...

-Roman

charliegt

Thanks for the responses guys. TCB, when I mentioned that the AWS didn't come on I'm refering to cold starts. It is something that I've noticed and though may be related.

rzograbian: I changed the oil and saw no sign of coolant mixing. There is also not a lot of white smoke (if any) on startup. When there is, it isn't much and it doesn't smell sweet like coolant. I'll do a compression test when the engine is warm, and I guess I'll end up burning my hands in the process.

-Charlie

charliegt

bump.

rynberg

Yep, I had the same problem a couple of years ago. Rich, farty idle and very difficult hot starting. Try hot starting the car with the throttle fully open (foot to floor). If it starts up much easier, then it's a good chance it's your FPR (which it was, in my case).

Unfortunately, my current case of hot starting is due to low compression. Rebuild under way soon.

tcb100

If your car starts normally 19 out of 20 times, it's probably not low compression.

And when I blew my side seals it looked like a steam-engine so if you don't smell coolant and see steam, the odds are it's not that either.

Since it starts OK most of the time, I think I would bet on leaky injectors but the regulator seems like a fair bet too.

mad_7tist

pull the hose to vac hose to the fpr. if it has fuel in it it is bad. if it is ok either put a vac gague on it and make sure when you start the car when it is hot there is no vac reading (fpr solenoid cuts vac signal to increase fuel pressure to aid in hot start idle quality) how is the speed of the cranking when the engine is hot? any different then when cold?

charliegt

I'll check the hose when I'm in town this weekend. As far as speed of cranking - it is no different then cold or any other time. Everything seems to be fine, except for every now and then I have trouble starting it when it is hot.

-Charlie