'97 accent cold starting problems

Joined: Aug 28, 2005 Posts: 4

My '97 accent GL with manual transmission at 130,000 kilometers (that's around 75,000 miles) started giving me problems last winter. At first it was every couple of months, then every couple of weeks, then every couple of days. It would turn over, but not catch. I would have to crank it up to 24 times before it would start. I'd crank it 6 or 8 times then let it sit for 15 minutes. It would always start eventually, and when it did it would be fine for 6 or 8 hours or sometimes overnite. So I took it to a garage near where I work. They've been around since the 40s and have an excellent reputation. I normally would have taken it to the hyundai dealer where I bought it, but they changed owners last year and the new people are shady. The garage changed my starter, explaining that my starter wasn't turning fast enough. I took their word for it and picked it up on a friday, the 19th of august. They charged me $335 canadian dollars. So it started up saturday and sunday, but monday morning it took 45 minutes to start it. Tuesday and wednesday it was fine, but thursday morning it took 12 cranks or so. Let it sit at work for 6 hours and it did it again, although only 6 cranks started it. Friday and saturday it was good, didn't drive it sunday and am about to go to work now, so my fingers are crossed. The garage wants me to leave it with them which means I'm looking at 30 mile bus trip to work and back. I got a new battery last fall as well as new spark plugs and wires. I've been reading topics in this forum and other people have been having the same problem.It's been suggested that a bad crank sensor is the problem, but nobody has come back and said that replacing that solved their problem. Has anybody that went through what I'm going through fixed the problem? Except for this, my accent has been excellent.

External Since: Oct 09, 2004 Posts: 1964

One of the problems with this situation is that over the internet we can't
really find out what's going on with your car. Ideally, we'd check it
with a scan tool to see if there are any codes, what the sensors are
reading, etc. We'd check for spark and injector pulse. These are things
that will help us figure out what type of problem you're having and what
systems to check.

There've been a couple threads about coolant temperature sensor problems
causing a similar issue. The fact that it cranks for a while and
eventually starts makes me believe it's less likely a crank sensor than
other cases. I suppose you could try moving the connector around a little
on the coolant temp sensor and retry starting the car. Wiggling the
connector sometimes makes the temp sensor return to the normal value.

Joined: Aug 28, 2005 Posts: 4

I never heard of having to replace plugs and change the oil after flooding an engine. I don't think I've ever flooded it. I can't smell any gas. I keep the accelerator halfway down when cranking, I never pump it.
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