Hello hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.
I have a 1997 Chevy Cavalier z24 tsp manual. In the winter time it has an odd first start up the day problem. It will crank, start and die about a second later. given 3-10min of fiddling with it , it will start up. Once started it will be fine until the next morning. It makes trouble shooting kind of difficult also as i cannot reproduce the problem once its been started until the next morning.
I did notice a pattern that only the check engine and check oil pressure lights are on first thing in the morning, it will crank, start, and die within a second. If i key on or off or let it sit keyed on the dash lights will all eventually all light up I'm good to go.
Parts I've swapped have been a new ignition switch, a junkyard ignition cylinder and key, I've cleaned and checked all the fuses by driver side door.
It kind of feels like a bad connection or solder joint somewhere. Im leaning toward PCM corrosion(maybe even a faulty unit), or pass lock issue(even though the security light is not flashing or anything). and from what i know this year of car has no BCM. Does anyone know if the Dashboard has anything to do with the car running, perhaps a bad solder joint or capacitor is causing some issues.
any suggestions or experience with this.
What do you mean by "given 3-10 min of fiddling with it , it will start up"?
If the problem only happens in cold weather, then it doesn't seem like the problem would be an electrical connection.
It might be related to the coolant temperature sensor (not the thermostat). They're about $14 on
Amazon. The car's computer makes a lot of decisions based on the sensor's reading.
If you're even slightly handy, you should be able to replace it yourself. Just unplug it, unscrew it.
http://www.autozone.com/repairguides/GM-Cavalier-Sunfire-1995-2000-Repair-Guide/ELECTRONIC-ENGINE-CONTROLS/Engine-Coolant-Temperature-Sensor/_/P-0900c1528003cddd
The temperature sensor went bad on my wife's 1996 2.4L Cavalier. It didn't fail completely but it was feeding incorrect (too-cold) temperature data to the computer and so the computer fed the engine a too-rich fuel mixture (equivalent to turning on the choke with a carbureted engine ). That was fine when the car was cold but it caused the engine to stall when the engine warmed up. It was very difficult to diagnose. Maybe your sensor is reading too-hot and causing the computer to give it a too-lean fuel mixture? Not sure.
