No engine cold start if the car sits for 7 hours?

Tiny
BREEZYBREE
  • MEMBER
  • 1984 FORD TEMPO
  • 2.3L
  • 4 CYL
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 108,000 MILES
If the car sits for 7 hours it has to have help via a small shot of brake clean in the intake to get it fired off, until it reaches operating temperature there is a noticeable power reduction while driving. Once the temperature hits that goes away and it runs fine. Once warmed up restarts are no issue, only after a 7-hour cool does the problem resurface. I noticed that when I run my cold start procedure every morning I let the car idle until it reaches temperature, I know when it reaches temperature not by the temperature gauge, but by a 2 second long array of misfire that almost stalls the engine, then it catches up, clears up instantly and no problems again until a 7 hour cool. Any ideas?
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024 AT 3:34 AM

7 Replies

Tiny
KEN L
  • MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
  • 48,363 POSTS
Yes, I would swap out the engine coolant temperature sensor which can cause these issues. Here is the location of the sensor, also we should run the codes to see if any are stored.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/ford-lincoln-mercury-obd1-1995-and-earlier-diagnostic-trouble-code-definition-and-retrieval

Also, I would change out the fuel filter if it has not been done. Check out the images (below). Please upload pictures or videos in your response of any problems so we can see what to help you with.
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Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024 AT 12:13 PM
Tiny
BREEZYBREE
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Literally minutes after I hit the send button on that message I went out to my car and ran down 2 vacuum leaks and repaired them. The car started up this morning under its own power. Then I found 2 more vacuum leaks just a while ago.
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Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024 AT 12:51 PM
Tiny
KEN L
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Glad you could get it fixed, thanks for letting us know. Please use 2CarPros anytime we are here to help.
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Thursday, October 3rd, 2024 AT 9:36 AM
Tiny
BREEZYBREE
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May I ask why you would think a coolant temperature sensor would cause a motor not to fire off only when cold? I'm just trying to educate myself here.
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Thursday, October 3rd, 2024 AT 11:09 AM
Tiny
KEN L
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Because when the engine is cold it needs more fuel to run correctly, if the engine temperature sensor is stuck on hot all the time it will lean the engine out making it hard to start. You might want to unplug the sensor to see if anything changes.
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Friday, October 4th, 2024 AT 10:44 AM
Tiny
BREEZYBREE
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Gotcha ! That wasn't ever even a possibility entering my thought process when trying to figure this thing out. Thank you for broadening my vision. Good stuff !
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Friday, October 4th, 2024 AT 10:50 AM
Tiny
KEN L
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Yep yep! We learn together.
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Friday, October 4th, 2024 AT 11:39 AM

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