Cold sweats under 100F weather...car didn't want to start...

It is 100F in Texas today, and not exactly a good time for your car to refuse to start once the groceries are in the trunk... Today I went driving a little hard and after a fill at the gas station, the poor thing was thirsty, I headed to the supermarket. So far so good. After 30 minutes I return with the result of my hunting and put it all in the trunk. Get in the car and then. I get a mild start, the kind I get in the mornings when the car is cold and if I push the gas too much the engine kind of drown, gets into lower revs, then go back up. But this time no coming up after the drowning. The engine shuts down. I thought ok, may be I hit the gas a little too much when it was 'drowning', so I wait a few second and try to restart the beast but this time nothing. I can only hear the starter. Try again and same thing, a couple coughing from the engine but definitely not a start. Tried again 4 or 5 times nothing but the starter sound. I decided to keep cool..in the store... as it was like 110F on the parking lot. I went for a cold drink, returned to the car with absolute faith it would not leave me stranded with this weather... and then... the engine starts like nothing happened !!! AGRRRH ! Is the 996 subject to 'drowning' ? I mean too much fuel in the chamber that the spark plug would get wet ? I thought this was only something cars from the 70's did , no ? Is it normal or just a sign of more bad things to come ? PS: sorry no pictures of the reluctant car, I did not want to make her feel ashamed

Sounds like you need a new starter. They tend to have a tougher time once warmed up and asked to start again. BTW, my car always starts up vigorously hot or cold.

Mine plays the same trick when still hot from the last running. After attempts to start it usually kicks in with a full starter winding up. I've heard starters doing it but I'm inclined to figure a combination of using non standard bigger battery from porsche and the engine warmed up and still tight put extra drag on a quick start. It isn't fun some times but it always starts after 3-5 attempts.

These are typical starter getting old symptoms. But we need more info especially how old your car is and starter and battery. Worn out starters show its classic symptoms most commonly on a warm startup or after the car's been sitting around since the heat builds up.

hmmmm, so why would heat cause the starter to not work?

My car is a 2003 C2, the battery has been replaced by the previous owner a year ago I think, I never had any problem starting up so far. But often in the morning when I startup the car, if I push the gas pedal right away the engine rev go down like it is choking, after 5 or 6 seconds of wrming up then it revs up just fine. Is there any DIY to replace the starter or even better to test ?

I dunno guys. I get my car pretty darn toasty during a track session and I regularly shut it down and fire it back up without any issue or hesitation. Sounds like something is not right. The ignition switches are known to go bad and give problems, easy fix. Edit: fuel injected cars should never need any gas pedal application to fire up and hold an idle.

can someone describe th symptoms of ignition switch ? I'd assume it totally turn off everything ? or could it lead to a 'leak' of electric power and result in difficult start ?

Philooo, I drive my 996 to work daily, parking it in an asphalt lot outside. For the first couple of years that I owned the car, on hot summer days (100+) it would balk at starting similarly to what you describe. It would "kinda" start, balking along at about 400 rpm, and sometimes would just quit, or sometimes would find its groove and kick up to normal idle. I've found that letting the car idle for about 60 seconds before shutting it off eliminates the problem. I don't know what causes it, but it definitely is not the battery or starter. It has never done this when the temps are cool (say below 90), so it definitely has something to do with the temperature. Hope this helps.

67FJ45 :0 that is a "good" news... At least I can try that... even though 60 seconds might not be long enough to explain to my wife, why we have to wait inside the car LOL

Philooo, I tried it after reading that a 996/997 turbo should be idled for 2 minutes before shutdown to cool the turbos. So I figured, why not let the normally aspirated engine stabilize at idle? It works for me. Good luck.

It sounds like heat soak, after driving hard and shutting it down with hot ambient temps. The motor will get hotter from sitting than when running with coolant circulating thru it. A very hot motor on a hot day needs a really lean fuel mixture to start, also hot oil will cause lifters to bleed down fast and as a result compression will be low on a few cylinders. Don't touch the pedal when attempting to start, and crank for no more tha 5 seconds, then let it rest for 15-30 seconds to cool the starter and let the battery recover. Repeat until it starts and still don't touch the pedal until is runs for a while, lifters pump up and the motor cools a bit and idle is consistant.

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i agree. i thought he was talking about his starter... but he was actually talking about the engine bogging when he steps on the gas pedal..

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thats for turbo engines only; to cool the turbos by circulating the coolant... they make turbo timers to do this as well.

It's real simple: do a search on "starter" and you'll find very similar symptoms.

There should be no need to press the gas pedal before or after engine start cold, warm or hot. The engine should crank, fire and settle an idle. Idle speed might be high if the engine cold. If the engine won't idle right from cold then this suggests a coolant or intake air temp reading wrong and controller is working with the wrong temperature input and doesn't provide enough enrichening for the engine's true colder temperature. It could also be an intake air leak. Sincerely, Macster.

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The engine controller is quite capable of not flooding the engine. Provided everything is working correctly. If the engine doesn't fire right up -- cold now -- and settle into a proper idle -- without you having to work the gas pedal there's something wrong. This needs to be found and fixed. As for the not starting the symptom could be signs a starter is going bad. When a starter goes bad, well in some failure modes, when hot there's a bad connection (broken wire or something) that causes the starter to fail to spin to spin with anough speed to fire the engine. When the starter/engine cools down the connection corrects itself until the next time. When I first started reading your post I was going to say fuel pump but when my 02's fuel pump failed recently the engine just died like it well ran out of gas. The engine would crank just fine but not one peep out of the engine. Also, no gasoline smell at the exhaust exit which suggested strongly to me it was a fuel problem. And a year or so ago my 02 Boxster would fail to start usually when warm. In this failure mode the engine would not crank. There'd be no sound at all, just everything normal until I turned the key to the engine start position and then nothing. Then just as inexplicably with no drama the engine would start. Turned out to be an ignition switch. If you can reproduce the no start system with the engine cover off you might try hitting the starter with a wooden pole or something like that to see if jarring the starter "fixes" the problem. If it does, starter time. Sincerely, Macster.

Heat causes copper wiring to pass less electricity and not handle as much amps as it would when cool. So the starter when hot won't work as good.

At least it seems that if it happens, I should be able to push the car to start it, right ? Or is there some kind of weirdness device on the P car that block the good old push and jump in car to put in gear and start ? If the problem appears again, I think I'll put my extended warranty at work on the started and ignition switch just in case.

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AFAIK, a push start should work. I'd advise you to consult the car's owners manual to see if there are any push start precautions. Remember these cars are a bit soft at the ends so if you are going to push start the car get it rolling then no one or no thing pushing against the car let out the clutch and see if the engine starts. Hopefully it will. If it doesn't then you have pushed the car perhaps someplace less ideal than where it was. Also, a push start attempt assumes the engine will start and run all it lacks is the spinning provided by a starter. If the no start is perhaps due to some critical sensor sending an implausible signal to the engine controller then you can push the car around the world and it won't start. A push start is not a permanent solution. At some point you're going to want to find and fix the cause and best to do it now rather than later. Saves wear/tear on you and the car. Since you have an extended warranty I'd relate the symptoms and when/how they happen to someone at your favorite repair shop and let the shop find and solve the problem. That's what you have the extended warranty for. Sincerely, Macster.

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Correct, that's what I said. Both of my engines exhibited the symptoms I noted. I had the dealer check the car at the 30k service, and the report back was that there was nothing wrong. When I found that letting the car idle for a minute before shutdown eliminates the symptoms, I adopted the practice. Regardless of the cause, it has worked for me for three summers.