07 GT sounds like old lawnmower on cold start

ekholbrook · 05-05-2008, 07:51 AM

This just started to happen within the last week or so. The car starts and sounds find during all other times but if it's been off for 6-8 hours or more, when I turn the key the starter sounds fine, but it sounds almost like the fuel is not getting to the engine. It reminds me of when you start a lawnmower after a few weeks where there's a few low, slow chugs,.. chug.... chug... chug..chugchug... then it starts. But it's a very weak awakening. It used to sort of like whoosh into life. Now it feels like the car is half asleep.

The battery level seems fine. The car starts fine at all other times. It's not a weak crank or sound like a dying battery. It drives fine. No weird idling. It's been fine all winter here in cold New York. As I said, it basically just happened one day and has been getting kind of worse ever since.

Any ideas? Fouled plugs? I dunno, I'm not a mechanic and really haven't a good guess. I don't want to put in any sort of fuel cleaner or additive

ewgoetz · 05-05-2008, 08:00 AM

What year and how many miles? when was the last tunup done on it(plugs, wires, fuel filter, air filter)

ekholbrook · 05-05-2008, 08:20 AM

>>What year and how many miles? when was the last tunup done on it(plugs, wires, fuel filter, air filter) <<

It's an 07 GT. It's got 14,500 miles, last tune was around 11,000 but I it was basically just the usual oil/filter check sparks/battery type of tune. Nothing major pulled or replaced. What weird is that it's not something that's been steadily getting worse. One day was fine, the next it started this anemic cold start stuff.

My suspicions are that something got knocked out of whack when I had it in at the Ford dealer to replace the spacer plate between the engine and transmission. That was about 1 week and a half ago and it's been doing it since that time. Too much of a coincidence.

This morning though was bad, I was not even sure the car would start as it just sounded like nothing was happening and then finally a few blubs of life as the engine sloooowly gathered momentum and quietly came to life. An hour later I turned it on again and boom, starts up fine.

F0RD4LifE · 05-05-2008, 09:45 AM

i would take it to the dealer