Author Topic: Cold Weatrher Starting! (Read 8129 times)

tdorval · « **on:** December 19, 2006, 06:19:56 am »

Hey guys,
I was just checking in to see if there are any tricks to cold weather starts. I just did the timing, and thats right on. The car seems to be running great. Now that its winter and I live in Northern NH where it gets pretty cold i need to figure out some ways to get her to start when its cold. In the morning its not bad because i can have it plugged in, but when i go to school and come back to the car 3 hours later between classes i need it to start. i just got a new battery so theres plenty of cranking power. It has new glow plugs(bought the car with new ones in it) and like i said its already timed well. Are there anythings i can do to get the car to start with out plugging it in. It started at 33*F yesterday with out being plugged in, but it was 22* this morning and i wanted to test it to see if it would start or not w/out beeing plugged in and it didn't. What temp should these start at w/out beeing plugged in? There must be some things i can do to get it to start right? Anyone have tips or tricks. What oil do u run in the winter? By the way its a 92 1.6 td jetta
Thanks in advance
TJ

addautomotive · « **Reply #1 on:** December 19, 2006, 06:40:31 am »

You should be able to start it at -20*C (-4*C).

Factors:
-timing
-glow plugs
-starter
-battery
-compression

If you have low compression, it will be awful to start nomatter what you do. With my old 87 NA jetta, it started beautifully, even after sitting overnight at -25*C, once I had a good battery, good starter and good glow plugs.

Another thing to check is your fuel filter

jtanguay · « **Reply #2 on:** December 19, 2006, 06:49:58 am »

andy2 helped me set my timing to 1.06 and let me tell you.. it fires up first crank in the cold, but when warm it takes a few cranks still. no biggie...

battery is huge. these cars should have 1000CCA battery to properly start in harsh conditions. In the summer you can get away with 600CCA and maybe lower.

tdorval · « **Reply #3 on:** December 19, 2006, 07:00:57 am »

so it should start at 20 below F with out beeing plugged in or plugged in? I've got my pump at 1.04, i could try advancing it to 1.06. As far as compresion goes, it may be down a bit. Its got 220000 miles on it. And i'm not sure if its ever had rings done. How big of a job is it to do rings on these things? I don't have a compression tester that goes up high enough for this thing... but either way i'm not going to rebuild it anytime soon.
Thanks
TJ

anarchyx34 · « **Reply #4 on:** December 19, 2006, 08:08:33 am »

Last week we had a 16F morning, and I was worried it wouldnt start. But it did. Not plugged in either. Ran the glow plugs for a good 10 seconds or so, and it fired up. It misfired a couple of times immediately after startup, but otherwise lacked drama. I was impressed.

Powjetta · « **Reply #5 on:** December 19, 2006, 08:53:58 am »

As Libbypapa mentioned check your ground straps and think about upgrading battery cable size. These cables are too small at max current draw and I have upgraded mine with good results.

tdorval · « **Reply #6 on:** December 19, 2006, 10:17:41 am »

i have a quick question about glow plugs, the guy i bought the car from said he had put fast glow plugs in, and i thought i read somewhere that the TD's need a slower glow plug. Could this be my problem or should it not matter? I still wait for the glow plug light to go out before cranking. I may have to look into the cables, but i'm hoping for some easy things, as i've already spent a decent amount of money on this car...
TJ

TW · « **Reply #7 on:** December 19, 2006, 05:54:35 pm »

I put an extra battery in the trunk. I used a 1000 cca like the ones used in semi trucks. I used welding cable with copper ends soldered on and ran tne cable under the carpet to the engine compartment where it connects with the other battery (880 cca) in parrallel. I used a plastic box for batterys sold at wal mart to keep it covered. I just ran a short cable to ground this battery to the chasis. On one of my cars I wired in a switch to the ground cable so I could turn it off and use it for a jumper battery if the front battery went dead. Which reminds me that I always carry a well charged jumper box in the trunk too. With this setup you should be able to start your car to -10F if it's been parked for three hours and it's not too windy.

TW · « **Reply #8 on:** December 19, 2006, 06:10:29 pm »

Buy the way, I use 5-40 Rottella synthetic. I know it isn't a true synthetic, but it does have a lower pour point than regular oil.

LeeG · « **Reply #9 on:** December 19, 2006, 10:05:51 pm »

Condition of your injectors can make a big difference. Car in my sig hasn't been an easy cold starter for a couple years. It recently developed grey/white smoke at idle. Suspecting a leaky injector I replaced 2 injectors with low mileage ones I had spare. That got rid of the smoke and it starts a lot easier now. I know for sure the old injectors have 200,000 on them and I would guess they are from factory.

I only replaced 2 as it was late, I was tired of standing in the cold and I was freaked out by how much force I had to use to get the 2nd injector out (everything I had on an 18" breaker bar while standing in the the snow) I'll do the other 2 on a nicer day with the engine hot and hope neither of them pulls the threads from head.

jtanguay · « **Reply #10 on:** December 19, 2006, 10:12:30 pm »

the viscosity of the oil helps dramatically. switching from 15w40 to shell rotella 0w40 synthetic really really helped my car's cold starting. mix that with a powerful battery, and even a worn out diesel that has at least 320 psi in a couple of cyls should start at 0F or -20C without too much issues

tdorval · « **Reply #11 on:** December 20, 2006, 06:00:06 am »

as far as goign synthetic, i thought this caused many oil leak problems so i was hoping not too. But if the oil will make that big of a difference i may have too. I like the idea of an jumper battery in the trunk wired into the other battery. I'll have to pick up an oil filter and some new oil and see if that helps for now. I sure hope it does.
Thanks
TJ

jtanguay · « **Reply #12 on:** December 20, 2006, 08:34:32 am »

everyone says synthetics leak... if you ask me they dont burn like regular oils do.

so its pretty much evened out, and plus they help cold start oil flow dramatically. very very worth it!

tdorval · « **Reply #13 on:** December 21, 2006, 12:52:16 pm »

well i tried the oil change, 5-40 rotella synthetic... didn't help out at all, went to start it this afternoon at 32*F and nothin... need to figure out where to go from here now..

tdorval · « **Reply #14 on:** December 22, 2006, 10:54:50 am »

ok, i did a couple electrical tests to see if power was getting to the glow plugs... and there was. So i figured i mine as well pull the easiest plug because they didn't look all that new like the guy had said. Well the glow plug was cut off at the tip. So i'm thinking i've found my problem. Ordered 4 new glows and will put them in tomorow. Now with the tips beeing gone where does that go, right down in the motor or what because the really scares me. Should i be checking my injectors to make sure their spraying right, because i believe thats another reason for the tips melting or cutting off right? How long would my new glows last with bad injectors? Well i'm goign to go pull the car in the garage because its supposed to rain tomorow.. hopefully this takes care of her...

Author Topic: Cold Weatrher Starting! (Read 8129 times)

addautomotive

anarchyx34