Cold Weather Crank, No Start

[Blayze]

2000 Chevy S10 2.2L

I have a cold weather crank no start issue.

I have proper fuel pressure, I have spark, I have a full battery. Starter cranks powerfully but will not fire.

Checked plugs they did not look flooded; dry tanish brown in color. They are also new oem

12.5v at battery which is a Duralast Gold less then a year old.

I have tried starting with pedal pushed to floor, with no success.

I have tried turning key to ON position multiple times before starting.

No vacuum leaks.

Engine light reads bad O2 sensor bank 1, & intermittent TPS (TPS is new)

Had problem today at 30F

All electrical connectors are tight and have dielectric grease

5w30 oil

Full tank of gas

I have not checked compression

Just seems weird that I only have this problem in colder weather.

Any ideas? Help Please I’m at a lost and need to be able to get to work :side:

-Thanks in advance.

Topic

[Jesse]

[quote=”Ezyalb” post=118935]2000 Chevy S10 2.2L

I have a cold weather crank no start issue.

I have proper fuel pressure, I have spark, I have a full battery. Starter cranks powerfully but will not fire.

Checked plugs they did not look flooded; dry tanish brown in color. They are also new oem

12.5v at battery which is a Duralast Gold less then a year old.

I have tried starting with pedal pushed to floor, with no success.

I have tried turning key to ON position multiple times before starting.

No vacuum leaks.

Engine light reads bad O2 sensor bank 1, & intermittent TPS (TPS is new)

Had problem today at 30F

All electrical connectors are tight and have dielectric grease

5w30 oil

Full tank of gas

I have not checked compression

Just seems weird that I only have this problem in colder weather.

Any ideas? Help Please I’m at a lost and need to be able to get to work :side:

-Thanks in advance.[/quote]
Have you tried checking your fuel pressure? Sometimes cars will have trouble starting in the cold if they have a fuel pump that is slowly starting to go going out.

edit: I see you already checked the fuel pressure

[none]

[quote=”Ezyalb” post=118935]2000 Chevy S10 2.2L

I have proper fuel pressure, I have spark, I have a full battery.

I have tried starting with pedal pushed to floor, with no success.

I have tried turning key to ON position multiple times before starting.
[/quote]

Fuel pressure and the key cycling go hand in hand. If you’ve got proper fuel pressure on the first cycle of the key, there’s no need to repeat cycle the key before cranking. Cycling the key is only good for priming the system for long crank problems.

Pushing the pedal to the floor while cranking initiates something called “clear flood mode”. In clear flood mode, the PCM is disabling the injectors so you’re not going to get the truck to start anyway.

Do you have any codes stored and have you looked for any blown fuses? Does the check engine light stay on when cranking?

[Erin]

Just throwing this out there but have you changed the spark plugs since last winter?
Reason I ask is because some engines are picky about the plugs that go into it. It is usually not a problem in good weather but in the cold, that is when ALL the car’s problems start showing up.

I had this 88 Reliant once and put in Bosch plugs and on one super cold night, the engine would not start. Put in cheapo plugs and it eventually started. Find out what plugs are ideal. May or may not effect anything.

That is weird that 30 degrees would cause a no-start though. Does it sound like it at least tries to fire up or just turns over as if there isn’t even a spark?

[Jesse]

[quote=”Summer_Night” post=118942]Just throwing this out there but have you changed the spark plugs since last winter?
Reason I ask is because some engines are picky about the plugs that go into it. It is usually not a problem in good weather but in the cold, that is when ALL the car’s problems start showing up.

I had this 88 Reliant once and put in Bosch plugs and on one super cold night, the engine would not start. Put in cheapo plugs and it eventually started. Find out what plugs are ideal. May or may not effect anything.

That is weird that 30 degrees would cause a no-start though. Does it sound like it at least tries to fire up or just turns over as if there isn’t even a spark?[/quote]
What Summer_Night said about spark plugs is absolutely correct. Something similar happened to my 2002 GMC Sierra. It was very hard to start when it was cold or it didn’t start at all. The wrong kind of spark plugs. GM trucks really do not respond well to certain types of spark plugs, in my experience usually they don’t like platinum plugs. If you changed them recently I would put in exactly what your owner manual says to put in.

[Blayze]

Yes spark plugs are brand new OEM, and are all getting strong spark.

Cycling the key was just one of my attempts to test my fuel pressure tester accuracy.

Disabling the injectors was also another attempt of starting if there was a flood.

Have checked all fuses, all look good.

I’m not sure if the check engine light stays on while cranking or not, have to get back to you on that.

I think I will test for compression also next. Maybe a shot of oil in the cylinders could help?

Does not try to fire. Sometimes. On chance, I believe. It will, but for the most part; I’m shit out of luck

This is a reoccurring problem I have been facing for the past few years.. Cold Weather, Wont Start.

[John Hugon]

If I remember there was a TSB on crank no start when cold, due to low compression.GM said diagnosis lead to a compression loss due to sticking valves because of low detergent fuel been used at that time period. The fuel deposits would get on the intake valve stems and cause the valves to stick in the valve guides. The fix was clean the induction system using GM Top Engine Cleaner.

[Blayze]

[quote=”JTF” post=118968]If I remember there was a TSB on crank no start when cold, due to low compression.GM said diagnosis lead to a compression loss due to sticking valves because of low detergent fuel been used at that time period. The fuel deposits would get on the intake valve stems and cause the valves to stick in the valve guides. The fix was clean the induction system using GM Top Engine Cleaner.[/quote]

interesting information.
I thought of running seafoam

I’ll do a compression/leak down test and then give that a try.

[zero]

Interesting thread, every GM I’ve ever seen has a schraeder valve on the fuel rail to check pressure. That will show you the pressure the engines operating off of.

Not sure what you’re suspecting your ECM of exactly, but unplugging it will likely only delete stored codes etc. The only way I’ve ever seen a ECM reset is with a firmware flash. If you were having starting problems before you got the fuel pressure figured out, that was likely the only culprit.

[Blayze]

checked compression recently, 165 psi in all cylinders. So that’s good.

Was questioning the ECM, so I removed it and placed it inside overnight. Reinstalled it with dielectric grease the next day. Still cold temp outside but fired right up on second crank.

I’m wondering… did the ECM get reset from being unplugged and solve my problems? Are there any loose connections or solder spots that may be breaking from shrinking in the cold? Was there moisture in the connectors that I cleaned up?

If it starts tomorrow after sitting in the cold overnight, I’ll have more information.

Has anyone experienced similar problems or know of any regarding the ECM and its failures?

[Lorrin Barth]

I was noticing that you first had the problem when the temperature got below freezing. Could it be that you have some water in the fuel tank? I used to do some flying and you never left the ground without draining fuel from the bottom of the tank and they are much more careful with aviation fuel than they are with car gas.

[Blayze]

I wouldn’t think so as this vehicle is my daily driver gas constantly gets cycled through it, I’ve been having the problem for several years at cold weather.

I also have “Heet” fuel stabilizer in the tank aswell.

Interesting tho, I had my Check Engine Light Checked again after it came back on. A new code came up, P0300 for random misfire. I hooked a timing light up to each spark plug wire and the flashing of the light matches up with the rpm of the engine. Nothing intermittent.
Was thinking I’d check the resistance of the wires and inspect the dist. cap for corrosion.
Could I be misfiring on start up and the misalignment is not severe enough to effect warm weather start up.

…idfk but I’ll keep on testing..

[Lorrin Barth]

The P0300 random misfire code is one of the less useful codes the computer will set. The ECU monitors the crank sensor and sets the code when the rpm of the engine is not steady or uniform. This can be caused by a misfire but since the computer doesn’t identify a specific cylinder I’d think mixture or something that affects all cylinders.

Other engine problems can set a p0300 code too such as a loose timing chain or timing belt.

My car will set a p0300 code within several miles of driving and it is due to vibration within the transmission. This could be fixed by having the transmission rebuilt to tighter tolerances but I refuse to spend the money on a transmission that otherwise is working perfectly. So, since I know how, I just reprogrammed the ECU to not set the p0300 code.

[Blayze]

🙁

Several months have past since my last posting. Since then my truck has been in the dealership getting worked on..
With no prevail..
The service techs could not identify the problem. Went through everything only thing left was the ecm.

ECM was replaced and programmed still having the same problem. I’m wondering if this could be an issue with the programming after hearing about other gm programming issues.

im at a complete lost

[Blayze]

Since last post…

Capped the vacuum port going to the secondary smog pump, truck started up 3 days in a row below freezing weather.
Until this morning about 15 degrees, turned over forever like usual.

I went back inside grabbed a 470 ohm resistor i had and plugged it into the intake air temperature sensor wire connector.
Truck started right up.

[Brian]

I’ve owned plenty of 4 & 6 cylinder GM’s. I’ve had very similar issues but not always for the same reason. I will make a few points.

In the cold, things shrink, then swell with heat. The ignition coils are caped in a plastic shell but are encased in a resin core. If there is a crack in the coil, it will keep the coil wires from making contact when cold, but warmth and swelling will make contact again.

The crank and cam sensors are subject to the same temperature issues because they are encased in hard resin with a plastic cap just like the coils. A bad crank sensor can keep it from starting.

Have you done a noid light test to verify there is fuel being pumped by computer command? You can make a noid light BTW. If the noid does not flash then either the computer or the crank sensor has issues.

Using any variant of ethanol will draw moisture into the gas tank and reduce mileage greatly. I never use it for those and other good reasons.

I’ve heard lots of fluff about seafoam. I don’t trust it. Its thicker than it looks and can cause pushrods to get bent if used even slightly incorrectly. It happened to two people I know. Zmax is by far and wide a far superior product that can be used in the oil and gas without damaging it. Ive been using it for 20 years and seen the proof time and again of its value.

[Author]

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