cold weather causing starter issues

[jessemkiiis]

Now that its getting cold it seems like my starter is acting up.
Starter almost sounds like its spining the engine freely.the starter is engaging to the flywheel, (marks on Belt) but not turning over fast enough to start.
I tried to start it several times and eventually it will fire up.(sometimes i have to jump it off)
the car is definatly getting gas.
once the car starts It dosent happen again until it gets really cold usually overnight.
this is taking it toll on my battery, and eventually autozone is gonna cut my warranty off.
could it be battery related?
has anybody had a similar problem?:1zhelp:

 

[radiod]

So are you saying it's cranking but slowly or it's not cranking but you're hearing the starter "whirring"? If it's the first, your battery is probably weak, if it's the second, the gear in your starter isn't popping out properly. Get your battery load tested to see if it's for sure good, and check your amperage draw from the starter when you're trying to crank it. You'll need a pretty decent meter and inductive amp clamp to test the starter amperage. The starter may have something messed up inside and trying to draw way more power than normal (I've seen a car starter trying to pull 130A before and would kill the battery in literally seconds if it didn't fire right away).

 

[jtran8]

Sound like not enough cold cranking amp . Is this Duralast battery ? Duralast gold got higher cold cranking amp than regular Duralast .

 

[jessemkiiis]

I got the most cca's duralast gold can offer. I got a new battery but I think somethings killing em slowly.
untill I find out guess ill have to unhook the terminal

 

[hvyman]

check your battery voltage when its cold and check to make sure you got 12v to the starter. if both are fine then the starter solenoid might be freezing.

 

[89supra7mgte]

IF you got a new battery and its still doing it sounds like as mentioned you are pulling way to many amps. While you got the negative terminal un hooked do amp amp draw test on it see if you have a hidden draw that is robbing a lot juice over night(all acc turned off of) If you do this could make for hard starting when bat has been sitting, going away after you get it started and charging through the day.

 

[jessemkiiis]

I went out tonight(when cold) and started the car on a new battery.
no problem started like a dream.
I think I have a gremlin eatin my battery.....

 

[MKIIISupraGuy]

my experience with Duralast batteries is that they don't like cold weather. But things like starters dont like cold either. just check your voltage and amount of draw you have like everyone else said so you can rule out those gremlins...lol. If your battery has the power, and their is solid connection with no corrosion anywhere.. then the starter should do its thing, unless it is mechanically weak or faulty. (gears getting worn or sticking etc. )

 

[jessemkiiis]

I replaced my ground cable with 4ga amp wire, new battery terminals(rockford fosgate)
and im going to replace the + cable with 4ga also.
I dont think its the starter, it works way too good with a new battery.
Guess ill need to bring my ohm meter from work tomorrow.

 

[IwantMKIII]

Do yourself a favor and just get a red top optima. Pricey but totally worth it. I had a tow truck driver leave my ignition on for 3 days and the thing still had power when I got to it! Not enough to turn over but the fact it was still on and somewhat functional amazed me, and yea I have a 1200 watt amp it was powering as well.

Also, it doesn't take much to get these cars started from the starter. Check to make sure your csi isn't overly gunned up from the egr as this causes many initial start issues asside from vapor lock

 

[jtran8]

Your alternator might be dying cause it's killing your battery slowly , you need to check your alternator too.

 

[89supra7mgte]

Get the dmm and check for draw, i am not sure what the spec is for this car in particular, but most cars like to see less than .1 amp. You will wanna check it in mili amps to. Dont forget you may have small amount of draw due to ecu but it will be minor. if your reading are out of spec or believed to be high then start pulling them fuses. Dont forget to also check the alt and starter draw. I have seen alts and voltage regs on other cars that will short out and keep pulling bat power when the car is off, and no i am not talking about having voltage on the bat post of the alt, but through the field

 

[jessemkiiis]

Alright so I did some test and this is what ive comeup with;
1: my alternator is good, (I unhooked the battery terminal while running)
2: the starter dosent engage when really cold.
3: something is killing my battery

heres the question, could a bad starter drain the battery?

 

[89supra7mgte]

Pulling the battery cable will show alt is charging but that doesnt mean that it is. I would rec properly checking alt, not mention doing that can create major damages to your cars electrical system. Just because it stayed running doesnt verify that it is charging properly.

And a bad starter or a starter going bad can create excessive draw on the battery while cranking, but will not drain the battery unless staying engaged overnight, which would not go unnoticed.

If you do not have the proper tools to correctly test the systems, drive the car down autozone and they will do an electrical test on the battery, alt and starter for free. They will load test the battery, check the charging of the alt along with condition of diodes, and not to mention tell you how much draw the starter has while cranking and what it drops the battery down to.

During cold weather a weak battery will fail, just because its new does not mean it good

 

[radiod]

Cold weather does make it harder for a battery to deliver energy. That's why you'll have a CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) rating on the battery yet it will usually test much higher (my 770cca battery tested at 984cca a couple days ago while it was ~45F outside). CCA rating is supposed to be what it will measure at 0F. Also make sure your battery is reading 12.6V (or slightly higher) when trying to start. That is a "full charge". 12V (11.89 to be exact) is flat dead.

If you're concerned about something drawing, try unhooking your negative terminal when you park it at night, hook it back up in the morning, see if it fires up. If you've got a GOOD multimeter you can put your multimeter in between your positive cable and the positive terminal and measure whatever amperage draw there is. Whatever you do DON'T START YOUR CAR if you do that, you will blow up your meter. Your ECU will also still draw some power while your car is off, as well as any alarms, etc. Generally if you let it sit for an hour or two, it should be in a "rest" state and you really shouldn't get much more than 10mA or 20mA.

 

[jtran8]

Sometime bad alternator stop working when it get hot and start working when it's cold again ( sound weird but it's happenned to me once). So if you really have bad alternator , whenever it get hot it will stop charging and your car start drawing power slowly from battery . My suggest is drive your supra for 10 minus then drive it to Autozone and check it while it still hot or unplug it ;whatever you want ( they all free anyway ).

 

[jessemkiiis]

heres an update, with the help of a friend i detrermined that the starter is fine.
the car spins freely, dumps plenty of gas but does not fire.
I replaced coil pack and ignitor to no avail.
finally I got played with the cps (timing) and it started. It studdered for a minute but that was from all the built up gas.could it just be the timing out or is there something bigger at play? thanks in advance
btw I plan on setting the timing asap but its hard to set it when the car wont start.

 

[89supra7mgte]

easiest way to set you base timing is

Pull number one plug, roll crank by hand until number one is tdc (0 on lower timing cover) Double check cam gears make sure they are aligned properly, install cps in correct position.

There are two tabs underneath cap, at outer edge of housing, and one protruding tab on cps rotor. When installing cps you want the tab on the rotor just slightly offset to the right of the upper most tab inside housing. you will know if it is correct (one tooth forward or backwards) the offset is very minimal. The outer tab will almost line up directly with the cut out on the rotor. BTW you want the locking tab of the housing where the bolt goes through to be centered on the threads into the head

TSRM has this info also.

With that set the car will run and idle, UNLESS you have another issue(S) and you should be able to set it from there.

And if that does not work than you need to double check the basics, fuel, compression etc.....

 

[dusthead]

doesn't hurt to do this trusty mod:
http://www.supramania.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76403

 

[radiod]

doesn't hurt to do this trusty mod:
http://www.supramania.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76403

Excpet for the fact that that is not fixing the problem. Start reading that thread at post 30 on page 3 (http://www.supramania.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76403&page=3) and if you can understand english and very very simple electrical properties, you'll realize that the problem exists elsewhere. The stock wiring won't just "give out" because it's old. There's a loose connection, switch or relay that is bad elsewhere, or your starter or battery is bunk. I was going through the same thing not long ago, was about to go ahead and do that mod (had already bought the junk to do it), and then read a little further for more info and realized that all this is is a mickey mouse work around that will end up in just cutting your wiring harness for no reason. In my case it ended up being the starter and the mod would have done nothing for me.

Like they, measure three times, cut once. Do your homework first ESPECIALLY when doing things that won't be easily reversed such as cutting holes, cutting wires, etc.