Cold Weather making hard to start car

[2gTurboSpyder]

I'm currently driving a 1998 GST Spyder. I just bought the car in Febuary totally stock with no mods. I replaced the battery around June with a heavy duty battery and also replaced spark plugs and spark plug wires. I only use Synthetic Mobile 1 and have changed oil every 3K.

With all the general info aside here's my problem. It just snowed last night and got really cold. When I went to goto work this morning it had a real hard time starting. Since I just replaced battery, spark plug, and spark plug wires I really don't think it would be a spark issue.

Do I need to replace my starter? Anyone else having or have had this same issue and what fixed it? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[ibarfly]

I honestly think you're just experiencing mitsubishi's reluctance to start in cold weather, during cold winters in the mountains my talon did the same thing. An engine block heater worked wonders for the problem.

Where did you get your engine block heater from and what model is it. I have a 97 spyder with the same cold starting problems.

 

[unior]

Ha ha ha ha
I am glad he is not working on my car.
It's not that batteries sold in the south are any different, it's just that you can use it longer because it doesn't have to contend with the cliamate.
As your battery gets older it gets weaker. as someone said, in colder weather your battery looses a lot of power. Put the two together and what seemed like a perfectly fine battery at 80 degrees can't turn on a dome light at 10 deg.
It might be a good sales ploy though, start sending your better batteries down south.

well turns out the cells are thinner down south - i am not full of it www.pacificpowerbatteries.com

 

[yoshimitsuspeed]

well turns out the cells are thinner down south - i am not full of it www.pacificpowerbatteries.com

what am I supposed to be looking at? Where?

 

[Slipstream]

Where did you get your engine block heater from and what model is it. I have a 97 spyder with the same cold starting problems.

I had a friend retrofit a spare from his diesel fleet. Good luck finding one, your best bet would probably one that attaches inline with your coolant hose to heat the coolant and pass it through the block.

 

[yoshimitsuspeed]

You could try mitsubishi, and the parts stores as well. The most common ones I have seen replace one of your freeze plugs and I am sure they can't be to hard to find for our cars.

 

[SpooledGSX98]

I dont know if anyone has answered this yet, but i have experianced the same issues. But i have figured a method that helps.

On the initial start, turn the key to the ON position, and wait at least 10 seconds before even cranking your engine over. I believe that the cold weather causes problems with a fuel delivery.

Try just turning the key to the ON poistion and wait a few before cranking the engine over. Thats what Ive done and its pretty much solved my hard starting problem in the cold. It may stutter 1 out of every 10 cold initial starts, but its better than 10 out of 10.

Hope that helps

 

[dantegl]

my girlfriends eclipse was doing the same thing it wouldnt want to tturn over in the morning if we left the car out outside all night so we were forced to keep having to put it in the garage. we tried multiple things (efi relay, o2 sensor, different computer, stuff like that) we were just about to have a new fuel pump stuck in when we read one of the previouly posted threads that said a temp sensor, low and behold i went and checked the sensor and surprise surprise, a yellow wire had popped out of one of the temp sensors. fixed the wire and the error code left also (42 fuel relay) went away, aslo btw we have a 92 turbo fwd eclipse