cold start/push start
 

soooo....anyone ever experience this?

basically we have tandem parking in front of my garage. butttt last night i got home a little late (happy hour...heh) and ended up having to park outside. lately we've had this "freezing cold" 35 degree temps at night. anyway...its 8am this morning and since im blocking the other cars from leaving, i have to get out of bed to move the Z.

well i go start it up and the auto start is just cranking. half asleep i realize its been cranking for a good 5-10 seconds and let off the clutch. odd...so i shut off the ignition and start it up again...it cranks for another 5-10 seconds without starting! what the hell? i try it one more time, and no start. im cold and fed up at this point, so i just let go of the ebrake, let the car roll back and pop the clutch and give it some gas, and it starts right up. i really didnt think id have to "push start" the damn car this early into ownership! :confused:

with that said...has anyone had this happen to them? those in the colder states? should i bring this to the dealer if it continues to happen? :icon14:

this should not happen in 35F weather The only time i flooded mine was -40F and I got an SC toturn over too. Checked my oil temp on my camp2 and it was -12F.

:icon18: freezing cold here is like -5F. :tup:

your car should start within 10-12sec. it's not unusual for the car to crank longer if there is big humidty or temp change between when you shut down and start the car.

if it continues to bug you, have the dealer take a look at it.

last cold start I did was 16F and there was no problem

How old is the car?

sounds about the same for me too. no problems...started right up.

Last week I left the car outside from Tuesday to Friday when temps got as low as single digits with no starts in between and it started right up on Saturday.

october..so 4 months old

Lol at the 35 degree freezing weather.

Technically it's not quite freezing at 35 degrees. :p

Well something doesn't sound right! Check the battery out.

heh...for california 35 degrees is FREEEZING!! :rofl2:

couldnt have been the battery...voltage was at 14.5v or so and the cranking was strong. no struggle to crank. it just wasnt turning over for whatever reason. maybe its because the car was parked on an incline?

Check your gas, maybe pump in a few gallons someplace else. Did you happen to be low on gas when it happened?

What kind of oil is in your car? Are the levels on it good?

Also, how many miles are on your car?

gas tank full of 76, 91 octane

stock nissan esther/generic nissan barrel. (just got my first oil change, free; i asked specifically for esther...but who knows)

mileage - 3500

It's likely the issue is fuel related. It's possible that you had some freezing with the gas.

It's also possible that there's an issue getting power to start the engine somewhere along the line, and it may not be sparking, or applying the proper voltage to the injector. It's probably worth a visit to the dealer to diagnose, rather than attempting to do it yourself.
It may just be a one time thing, where you have a perfect storm of bad gas + cold, but it may be something else. I'm inclined to lean towards it just having been a bad combo.