hard to start on cold days

is it the same with you guys. it took me about 10 min. for the car to actually crank over and when it did it kinda idel funny then started to run normal. my wife drives the car so it sits on idel for about 40 mins everyday.

 

Still on the stock battery? It's pretty weak in terms of CCA's...amazingly I haven't gotten around to replacing mine yet.

 

My cars firing up fine. The coldest day so far was Monday and I left both car out in the open. My former Mazda fired up without a problem and so did my Subaru.

 

Last winter when my battery was too weak to start the car, I would hear the sound of a machine gun coming from my engine bay. My lights would come on, but it just wouldn't crank. If your engine is cranking, but it's just not starting, then it may not be something electrical but something mechanical. Hopefully not, but good luck. Make sure you are up to date with your proper engine lubrication, airflow, sparking, and fuel flow. The basics.

 

thanks guys. what kind of battery do you guys recomend.

 

One word of caution in buying a larger battery. Batteries are generally sized along with the alternator. If you have a high capacity battery and for some reason you let it go dead, you don't want to just jump start the car and let the alternator charge it. This can (and I've seen it happen, to myself and other people) burn out the alternator.

Actually if you allow *any* battery to completely drain, it's better to recharge it off a battery charger than off the engine, it's just more extreme if you have a 1000CCA batter in a car that expecting something 1/2 that size.

But it is very nice to be able to start the car in any weather without a hitch. I used to drive around town in my little Nissan SE-R and jumpstart all my friends when it got down to like -20F. Never failed. But that alternator was spendy

 

I get NAPA batteries for the warranty.

I have troubles starting in the cold but I'm pretty sure it has to do with something I didn't set right [xx(]

 

What oils are you guys running that are having trouble starting? I bought my 03 last feb. and it had some trouble starting on colder mornings. After my breakin period I switched to 5w30 mobile1, and its started right up every morning so far this winter. Stock battery, btw.

 

my **** subie didnt start today. i had to jump started. it cranked but no turn.

 

I noticed something about the way mine starts (this only loosely applies to OEM Imprezas). When I turn the key to on I can hear the fuel pump start up and run for maybe 4-5 seconds before it switches off, then back on when I start up the car. On these really cold days it doesn't run for nearly as long, maybe 2 seconds, before cutting out. I don't know if this is due to something freezing up in the fuel lines or what. I can switch the key off an on to cycle more fuel through the lines and that seems to help. I wonder if doing the parallel fuel rail mod would help that or make things worse.

And it's not the battery. I can sit there and crank all day with the NAPA battery I've got so it isn't anything to do with that. I do agree with everyone else that you should put a better battery in than the OEM one.

 

Yep, letting the fuel system prime itself before cranking the car definitely helps cold weather starts. My Walbro is crazy loud on startup, then if you're really listening close, you can hear it for about 15 or 20 seconds more after the car is running.

 

So far, I'm still on my OEM battery. It's firing up without a hiccup. I'll wait till next year and see if I run into problem some of you are experiencing.

My brother Jack's got a MY02 WRX with the OEM battery. He's able to fire up his car without an issue either... I'll remember to let any of you know how my car starts next winter season hehehe.