2002 Ford Explorer hard starting in cold weather

Then you need to get a manual fuel pressure gauge on it to verify fuel pressure. It could be the pump, temp can make parts do strange things. Any check engine light? If so have it scanned for codes

Migt be a coolant sensor out of range a little bit. Im in socal, so I dont really have to deal with cold-start problems all that much. If the fuel pressure comes right up when key is turned on, then the pump may be ok, but if it bleeds off to 0 overnight it will haev asmall amount of air in the lines that it will have to purge before it will start

After the tech cycled the key a few times and the fuel pressure was in specs did the truck start right up or did it still have a 30 second delay in starting? Im with jack on looking at coolant temp sensor. I have seen these pressures drop to 0 overnight but as soon as the key is turned to run the fuel pump energizes the system real fast and builds up good pressure. The extended crank then could be from a coolant temp sensor reading too high, for example the computer will hold injectors open a lot longer in colder weather(acting like a choke) but if the coolant temp sensor is reading 70 degrees when its really 40 then the injectors would be too lean to start the cold engine thus the extended crank time. But after 20 to 30m seconds the cylinders would be wet enough to start from the lean injectors and then would run ok for the rest of the day.

Well first off when turning key to run position we need to know that we are getting 12 volts to fuel pump and make sure the ground is really good. One cycle of the key will bring the system up to pressure, even if its zero to begin with. Thats next step of diagnosis. If it was a iac problem then lightly stepping on gas pedal to open the thrpottle a little will make truck start right up.

Fuel pump relay should energize fuel pump for a full 2 seconds and 3 seconds of cranking seems acceptable. If intake air temp and coolant temp are the same then that eliminates them. To check the ground with a meter you should not have no more than.5 volts on ground wire. If you have more than point 5 volts then there is too much resistance in ground. Im confused about actual condition. Original complaint of 20 to 30 seconds to start when cold. When this happens do you have fuel pressure? Even cranking engine over without letting fuel pump relay run you whould still get fuel pressure in a few seconds and run, are you getting fuel pressure? Also you can have tech check mass air flow sensor, calculated engine load he can read on the scanner and with key on engine off when its cold we need to find out what calc eng load is, it should be zero, if we have a dirty mass air flow sensor and its reading any load then this will lower injector pulse width and cause extended crank too.