and i think i know why. somehow, when i was putting a new trans in, i broke the engine coolant temperature sensor. throwing codes 6 and 17, ECT and VSS (VSS because i have speedo wires disconnected... i hope).

now my FSM says that the car being extremely hard to start when cold is most likely caused by ECT sensor. this has only happened after i broke it, so chances are that it IS the cause. im just asking this here because i want to make sure that its the only cause. nothing else about the motor changed, other than the broken sensor. it started fine before.

thanks for any info

 

I believe, (correct me if I'm wrong) that without a reading from the ECT sensor that the car would also get bad gas mileage due to the ECU never knowing when the car is at operating tempature. From my understanding the ECU adds more fuel on a cold start and draws some away after the engine has reached operating tempature.

Does it crank over slow? Tested your battery lately?

 

battery is brand new, before i put in the trans (and broke the sensor), it was just fine.

 

That could very well be it, the computer thinks the car is 20 degrees below zero with the sensor disconnected or broken, it needs replaced so do it and see what happens, let us know please.

 

Don't mean to hijack your thread but the exact same thing happened to me. I replaced the ECT sensor but it didnt seem to help. This morn it was pretty cold here in buffalo and i had trouble starting it up. It would crank for about 3-5 seconds start up and then die. On the next try it started up almost immediately but ran for a few seconds and then died again. The third try it started up and was fine from there. Anytime after that it will start up with no problem. What else should i look at?

 

eric416, did you test your battery too? your's sounds like a battery issue. could be something else.

 

its a new battery, not more than a 2 months old

 

fixed

it was the ECT sensor, car starts and runs normal now

 

wish i could say the same

 

good job with your car, to the rest wondering what could cause your car to not start in the cold, go buy a block heater