Hard startup when cold

Davidov

Davidov

Forum Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Messages
360
Location
Perth, WA
Hi,

My 03 Outback has almost 170,000 km on the clock with the stock 2.5L NA Engine.

The engine runs fine when warm power seems good for what is is and economy seems normal. There is absolutely no oil leaks and overall the engine seems pretty mint.

However, when the car hasnt been driven for over a few hours, start up will be really rough. It will always start first time but it takes a lot of cranking and sputters to life really nastily. But once it has been run for 10 minutes or so any start ups after that will be very fast and normal.

Ive done compression tests and that turned out very good and im out of ideas.

Does anyone have any ideas or is it something i will just have to deal with?

EDIT: I did change my battery to a very good optima yellow top which did help somewhat but again only mainly when the car has already been run.
 
Plugs and leads? Maybe the temperature signal to the ECU is faulty
 
Plugs are brand new. Leads arent im not sure how old they are but look in good condition.
 
As long as the gap is good and they are the right plugs then start looking at leads and the temperature sensor to the ECU- not the temp sensor to the gauge as they may well be different. Cold start issues are generally either poor spark and/or poor mixture. If the ECU thinks the engine is warm, it a) won't put in enough fuel, and b) won't show up as a fault if the signal is still within normal parameters. Might possibly be O2 sensor orAFM also
 
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