very hard cold starts, in cold weather

[Beems240sx]

my s13 SR began to start hard once winter came around and ive been having trouble with it ever since. its only when it sits over night and i go to start it that it just cranks and cranks. i know im not getting enough fuel. to be able to start the car i carry a can of carb cleaner with me at all times and spray in the BOV vacuum line. it starts when i do this which is why i know its a fuel issue.

Once the car is semi-warm, as in temp needle above C, it sputters and runs like crap. this is only below 2K rpm. its annoying because i normally shift at 2500 to 3000 on regular shifts. it will never stall on its own tho. its seems that once it gets the initial fire its ok.

i have replaced the coolant temp sensor already with no change. the sluggish while running leads me to believe my maf is dirty or needs to be swapped out, but this is only while its cold. ive also thought about the 02 sensor being faulty and keeping the ecu in an open loop, not allowing the sensor to regulate the mixture.

i was searching the forum and came across a thread talking about the orange wire that is the fused start signal that advances the timing during cold starts. can an sr start without this wire? when i bought my s14 completely stock someone had used a paper clip to jumper a missing fuse in the fuse box. i never figured out what it was for. is it possible this is it? i redid my whole fuse box when i tucked it all and left out this part.

Once the car is fully warmed up it runs perfect, pulls smooth and hard with perfect AFR's

any other ideas?

cliff notes:cold starts in cold weatheralready changed coolant temp sensorsluggish while running under 2K rpm

mods:S13 SR S14 SR "WC" ECUFront mount intercoolerFull 3" turbo back exhaustISIS intake manifoldStock T25 at 14 PSI

[shift_SRDETuser]

have you done a compression check? Usually that can be a sign of low compression due to rings and when you crank and crank on the car it builds the compression up and will run. Happens a lot on high boosted SRs..........

[Beems240sx]

i have not done one yet. ill have to wait until im back in school to do one but i will. could this be possible even though once its started it still pulls hard and doesnt smoke or anything?

[Justin35ll]

Check fuel pressure, change fuel filter, check spark plugs/gap

[shift_SRDETuser]

It could be one of many things. Like justin said it could be fuel, spark plugs etc etc. Smoking is more of a valvetrain problem like seals or something similar. I would start with compression and then go from there.

[Beems240sx]

i need to get an adjustable FPR anyways so i cant check the pressure just yet. im waiting for the shops to reopen to the new year so i can spend all my holiday money haha. the fuel filter is a new 300zx one. and i put in new NGK bkr7e, i dont remember the gap i set them at off hand. that was a few months ago

[J240sx]

I only read your cliff notes but it sounds like it was the same problem i had with mine. Started fine after swap.. Once it got cold out it took around 10minutes to start. My problem was the orange wire. To fix it i ran a wire from my stereo to both ends of the orange wire. Starts up fine now.

[240life]

Check your fuses, there is a 10a start signal fuse that advances timing and will allow your car to start in the cold...i would put my money on this

[Beems240sx]

Check your fuses, there is a 10a start signal fuse that advances timing and will allow your car to start in the cold...i would put my money on this

I checked this fuse once a while ago and it was fine. I'll check it again. Is this the fuse for that orange wire? I finally have a day off work so I'm going to check it out today

[240life]

yeah thats the one, some times the whole circuit burns out. I would do some research on this site about that wire. I have seen and experienced this for myself but mine was only the fuse missing, which fixed it. I know there is a write up on this site on how to repair, test, this circuit. Its worth a shot either that or you could try cleaning, testing your IACV, that might help. My car doesnt use the IACV any more, it is a bear in the cold, but I only drive it in the spring/summer, so it doesn't bother me to much.

[Beems240sx]

ok well i did some research at school today, my teacher and i found out that the orange wire runs to the ECCS box in the wiring diagram. we couldnt figure out much more about it though, shopkey and all data suck. what does ECCS stand for? Engine Computer Cold Start? and we also couldnt figure out if it needs 5 volts or 12v. from reading on zilvia, the majority there says 12v. i figured i would throw 5v at it first to be safe if i dont get a definite answer. thanks guys you all have been a realllly big help. now i just need this damn snow storm to go away so i can work on my car

[240life]

ECCS is your fuel pump relay I believe. Electronic Concentrated Control System (Nissan)

[J240sx]

It will take 2 minutes just to check. Just pull out your stereo and run a wire from there to the orange wire just to check and see if that is the problem.

[240life]

thats it, I knew it was something simple to check that circuit.

[Beems240sx]

its fixed!

it turns out when i did the wiring for the sr20 i accidently wired the orange wire to an orange wire with a blue stripe haha. swapped the two and she starts perfect now! thanks for all the help guys!

[shift_SRDETuser]

off topic but what kind of rims are those on your car 240lif? I have been looking for lipped black centered rims and can not really find any that I like?

thx

[240life]

there craptaSTic XXR 002's.....they look good and i dont care if i scratch them on the track ...if you buy them people will give you crap, but its my car and I choose not to put rims on it that cost more then the cars value.