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Intermitent Cold Start/Stalling issue

926 views 10 replies 5 participants last post by  devon 
#1 ·
So friday night I had stayed over at a friends house, during the night it had gotten really cold. That morning I went out and started the car and it idled really rough (like it was only running on 5 cylinders) so I turned it off. After this it did not want to start. Hooked up one of those heavy duty battery chargers and it started, but idled rough again. I let the car warm up like that for awhile and it ran fine all the way home. Last night my mom borrowed the car, it ran fine while she did her errands, however it stalled on her right in the entrance to our driveway. Today I took the car out, and ran some injector cleaner into it, it drove fine all day for me. However on my way home at an intersection the rpms dipped way down and it almost died. After that on the road by my house I noticed when I let go of the gas and hit the brakes gradually, the rpm would start to drop down like it was going to stall. Finnally by my house I hit the brakes to come to a stop and it died on me. I got it started again and drove the rest of the way home. When I got into my yard I got out of the car and took a look under the hood and heard a weird ticking sound coming from near the back of the engine. I have two guesses as to what the problem can be: 1.) Bad injector 2.) Plug wire/wires (would these cause a ticking sound?) but I still don't get why it would be intermittent then. Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks!

P.S excuse the bad writing, it's been a loooong day.
 
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#2 ·
My friend has a 91 firebird that had bad spark plug wires and caused a ticking and a miss in it, Thats to what they told him at the shop, Might want to check the wires see if one of them are melted or split in anyway,
 
#4 · (Edited)
yeah but that doesn't explain the intermittent part, oddly the car drove fine today. Also can someone explain to me the IAC like where it is located, I don't know much about it, but I do know that it has a small motor in it. It seems like the ticking noise comes from the passenger side throttle body or near to it atleast, and it almost sounds mechanical.
 
#5 ·
The IAC should be near your TPS on the throttle. Will have a 4 wire plug going to it. Two torque screws hold it in. You can test it by removing it and putting your finger from one hand in the hole of the TB to simulate the motor moving the pintle in and out a small amount. Have someone start the engine. With the other hold the IAC with a finger on the end of the pintle so that it won't shoot the pintle out of the IAC motor if you drive it too far out. As you make the idle speed go up and down with the one finger the motor will respond and move the pintle in and out. Before you stop be sure you run the pintle into the motor far enough or you will damage it putting it back into the intake. If it won't move smoothly you can try to clean it or replace.

Plug wires that are shorting can come and go. They can act up more on high humidity days so don't count that out.
 
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#9 ·
I suppose the EGR control valve could make noise. It is electric.
The TPS never...

You sure you might not have an exhaust leak, they will make a ticking sound also. The the sound speed up with the throttle.
I don't know how the EGR tube runs on a 3.5 but they sometimes are known to crack or break and could leak also. In the pic posted of the IAC I believe that is the EGR tube running under the IAC motor follow it and see where it goes.
Also when the EGR control valve on my Ram went bad it caused my 5.8L to idle really bad in cold weather. I disconnected the vacuum line to the EGR valve itself until I got it replaced.

(there are two parts to the EGR system. A control valve run by the PCM that controls vacuum to operate the EGR valve which controls how much exhaust is allowed back into the intake.)
 
#10 ·
Check the servo thingy under where the AC tubes go into the firewall - just left of the EGR solenoid in your pic but hidden by the intake pipe. I heard a ticking coming from there on my 95 3.5L and felt the device that has a couple of vacume tubes coming into it and it was coming from there cause I could feel it. I could also feel air pulsating in and out. I have no idea what it does. There is a wire harness and vacume hoses connected to it. It is near the firewall under the AC pipes.
 
#11 ·
I've noticed this tick (sounds like a relay) on my '93 3.5l also. Sounds like it's on the firewall on the passenger side. I can also hear it when the car isn't running, but the ignition is on. I also noticed a flashing red light in this area also, on a particularly dark night. I haven't checked it out more yet because of the cold winter weather here.

I've had my car run rough two consecutive really cold mornings recently....and it definitely smooths out quite quickly. On the one, it was extremely hard to start if you didn't hold it long enough the first try, and the other it started first try (took a bit longer than normal). I'm figuring an ignition problem....although, it hasn't happened again at the moment. I'm going to put in new plugs and wires, if it persists, I'll try swaping the ignition module.

I bet the stalling is a separate problem (probably IAC...maybe tranny), and the tick seems to be something else too.

Is your car hard to start all the time or just when cold?
Are you sure the stalling problem isn't related to the transmission?
 
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