J_C
Explorer Addict
- Joined
- July 30, 2009
- Messages
- 6,572
- Reaction score
- 2,365
- City, State
- Florence, KY
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1998 XLT 4WD 4.0L SOHC
'98 XLT, V6 SOHC
I've been driving her less often than I used to and short trips so it may be that I'm not getting the battery charge topped off, but it's getting harder to start once the temperatures drop to about 0F. It might have been like this for years, as it used to be garage kept so it never saw 0F without having ran recently until this winter.
In the worst cases if it doesn't start after about 6 seconds of cranking I stop, floor the gas pedal, and crank. This often does the trick getting it started, though the initial revving of the engine can't be good for the starter as it disengages.
What am I doing by flooring the pedal? Is this only moving the throttle plate to make it start leaner, which helps because it was dumping too much fuel into cylinders and not burning it off, or does the throttle position sensor cause injector duty increase to put more fuel into the engine even while trying to start it so it's richer, or does the ECM interpret this as some special case and use different parameters, or something else I haven't thought of?
It's quite possible all I need is to charge the battery and use thinner oil in winter, maybe clean the battery contacts, new spark plugs and wires, etc, at least for now, but it was a curiosity that flooring the gas pedal helps. I would have thought the temperature sensor would tell the ECM what it needs to do automatically. It runs fine otherwise except sometimes when it's wet out it seems to misfire for the first minute running, though the engine itself doesn't look wet.
I've been driving her less often than I used to and short trips so it may be that I'm not getting the battery charge topped off, but it's getting harder to start once the temperatures drop to about 0F. It might have been like this for years, as it used to be garage kept so it never saw 0F without having ran recently until this winter.
In the worst cases if it doesn't start after about 6 seconds of cranking I stop, floor the gas pedal, and crank. This often does the trick getting it started, though the initial revving of the engine can't be good for the starter as it disengages.
What am I doing by flooring the pedal? Is this only moving the throttle plate to make it start leaner, which helps because it was dumping too much fuel into cylinders and not burning it off, or does the throttle position sensor cause injector duty increase to put more fuel into the engine even while trying to start it so it's richer, or does the ECM interpret this as some special case and use different parameters, or something else I haven't thought of?
It's quite possible all I need is to charge the battery and use thinner oil in winter, maybe clean the battery contacts, new spark plugs and wires, etc, at least for now, but it was a curiosity that flooring the gas pedal helps. I would have thought the temperature sensor would tell the ECM what it needs to do automatically. It runs fine otherwise except sometimes when it's wet out it seems to misfire for the first minute running, though the engine itself doesn't look wet.
