91 Buick La Sabra, 80,000K on orig. engine. Car will not start when
outside temp is 0 Degrees C or 32Degrees F. or lower. Starts and runs
great with no issue during warm weather. Have done nothing yet to it ,
will have to take it to a mechanic unless I attempt it myself - gulp-
works sometimes in winter if I plug it in the day before the temp falls
to 0 F. or less and keep it plugged in . Any suggestions would be
great . tks.
Edited by: Joyl

 

Can you better describe your symptoms?

Will not start.
Turn over? Fire?
I have read of vehicles with Ignition Modules failing to fire at lower temperatures.
Some cars have had a small bit of water in the tank not letting the fuel pump to perform.
Troubleshooting during the event is helpful and unfortunately a pain. Looking for no fire or no fuel pressure can direct you to the problem.

Good Luck


Edited by: bassasasin

 

Symptoms- it cranks slow and hard,( I can almost see the engine
heaving ) and almost starts then wears down, their have been a
few times I have pumped the gas in frustration and have been
successfull to fire on the odd occasion only to have it not fire the
next time I try it...lol. I have tried a few different
things,adding gasline antifreeze, topping up the antifreeze, and
just had a rad flush done. Yes, Perhaps their is a bit of
water in the gas tank, maybe I need more than 1 bottle of gasline
antifreeze? and keep the tank on the full side during the
winter. Can't try this until next winter, I was thinking I could
have this fixed before then as it becomes a big pain. Thanks for
your advice. J.

 

You have given good INFO!

I would like to ask what viscosity of oil you use.
With only 80K miles 10W30 or 30W oil?
Multi viscosity oil is helpful when used for those hard to start days.


How good is your battery? Brutal winters need really good batteries.
Are all your cables in good shape? Does your battery have a warming blanket?

Engines at those ranges is harder to turn over, demanding more current from the starter as the starter turns slower. With that, there still are other possibilities such as a cold or old battery not providing the current for the starter. As I understand it the closer to discharge a battery gets the closer to water it's chemistry becomes. This may raise its freezing point.

Recently I had a dead battery. (yesterday) It completely discharged a 1yr old battery over a 2 month time sitting in a parking lot.
Without trying to start it, the car would not jump start after 20 minutes of charge from another car. It very slowly turned over and chattered allot. After two attempts I ended up taking the battery home, charging it overnight and returning to start it without any trouble.

This infers that a good hot charged battery may help or a new high amp/Hr battery suitable for the car. As batteries age, their depth of charge shortens from plates just chemically eroding away during normal use.



Edited by: bassasasin

 

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I just changed the battery in Feb. 07 an
energizer I think, the guy said it was top of the line. As for
oil, when I had the rad flush I had the oil changed and they put in the
oil for winter, that was also in Feb. I had no change in the
start. I always plug in the block heater as it has sometimes helped at
the onset of freezing temps. I have also had the odd success in topping
up the anti freeze during attempts to start, I was trying anything at
that point. The antifreeze was changed in the flush and is good for
minis a zillion or at least the North Pole.lol.

Thanks. Joy

 

You have covered most of the usual issues.
Your "slow and hard cranking" description is a classic clue of wiring, battery, starter, group of causes.

I'm now thinking wiring or starter motor since
I believe you have covered the battery well.

Why did I think of the Starter/Wiring?

Good starter motor speed during cranking depends on good, engine, battery, starter, and circuitry (wiring and relays).

What most often happens is loose wiring or corrosion on the large cables or terminals causes a voltage drop to the starter during high demand of starting. Bad terminals and wiring not only cause bad starting but poor charging and even stalling. Cars in your car age group often have connector to wire corrosion hidden</span> under the rubber on some their terminals. Many have quickly replaced the starter only to find later a corroded wire going into a terminal connector (a much cheaper repair).
With good wiring not a cause starter motors can wear down their armature and bushing bearings and be hard to turn and also demand higher current to operate. When there is this "high current demand" your ignition system is starved from the higher voltages necessary for a good hot spark and start.

Coolant antifreeze is to prevent your block from freezing and breaking. The engine would probably still start but run coolant out the cracks.

Edited by: bassasasin

 

Thanks for your reply. Can this wire problem occur during winter only?
is this when there is a high demand of voltage? If so then I will check
the terminals - brush clean them- and re-connect the battery to start
then check the wires, and replace them as I don't think their is any
way of checking for corroded wires under the rubber is there? This is a
good suggestion and I will get to it but will not know what's what
until this winter. If I still have this problem then I will look at the
starter connections etc. Still not sure why the cold and EXACTLY
32F. will cause this in the wires, seems to me something is feezing in
the gas lines because I have been able to start it if I work at it by
pumping the gas on occasion or plugging it in and leaving it for 2 or
so hours.(not always) The first time this happened I had it towed to a
garage, he put the car in and looked at it in about an hour's time and
it started good. He could not find the problem. After that I started
problem shooting the best I knew how. Thanks. Joy.

 

Checking for corroded terminals is a bit easier than one would think. After a long hard attempt to start, just feeling the cables to see if one connection is much hotter than another. A poor connection will generate heat. This will also work on battery terminals. Often I hear of slightly melted cable insulation near a bad connector.

Running ethanol gasoline may also help if there is water in the gas. This is similar to gasoline antifreeze.

Perhaps you could try no pumping and choose a throttle position of either no throttle or full throttle. If your car is flooding a full throttle position may spring it to life.

Edited by: bassasasin

 

May want to try some synthetic oils. They seem to flow better under colder conditions. Our tractor will barely start when using 10W-30 during the winter months, but when using full synthetic 10W-30, it easily cranks and starts without hesitation. I only have/currently used only synthetic oil in my LeSabre (and other vehicles) so I'd not be able to tell you the difference other than they all start well under cold weather (even in Michigan winters).

 

hy!I've had a problem of cold starting,car would turn but would not sart,in winter time,and sometimes it would start right away.But once it started it would start ok unless it sayed a long time until like overnight.I changed the coil pack and it solved the problem.But for the last few years I had the opposite problem car would not sart when hot during summertime.this time the coolant temperature sensor was the problem,it can be checked by checking the resistance at a given temperture,theire is a chart that exist in mecanique books this could be your problem too if it do not give the right engine temperture the the gaz mixture might be wrong.and for slow cranking your garage can check the voltage that your starter use when cranking the engine,if it need toomuch voltage to turn over the engine itwill show,and either starter is close to be replace because the bushing or bearing are worn out,or armature is short and soon the starter will not turn anymore or as bassasin said wiring could be loose or so.One more thing that is an easy check is fuel pressure,it's wort to be checked,since most problems are easy to fix but most of the time long to pinpoint.good luck