so here in calgary canada everything is coverd by 10 cm of snow and ice with temps of -24 C ( last night ). I decided to try / test my baby so i left the car outside without using the oil pan heater and what an experience! It was a really hard start and it took the car about 2 maybe 3 seconds to start and as soon as it did the RPM jumped to about 2900 and of course i was not prepared for such a reaction of the car since the civic i drove last winter started normally even at -47 C . the rpms stayed at about 2900 for a few seconds and then started to drop to 2100 then right away back to 2900 and then 2100 again and then back to 2900 and it did this for about 25 seconds i actually thought my engine was crazy and about to die, is this any normal at this temperatures? thats exactly what the turbo civic of my friend does for about 40 seconds ( jumping and dropping rpm ) . i really thought it was the last day of driving my 8. And for more details, i just installed new sparkplugs and the car NEVER gave me any problems when starting it during better weather it was only until lastnight that it got so cold Any second thoughts?
Thanks in advance guys

 

Keep it plugged in

A few seconds doesn't really constitute a hard start.......cranking for 30 sec or more...that would be a hard start

Just don't shut it off when it's cold......the amount of fuel it needs to start and run at that temp will be significant...and a lot of it puddles on the port surfaces till it warms up enough to vaporize

Flooding would be easy

 

Yeah man, I'm in the same boat! Let my car sit over night (unplugged) and gave her a start today (-17 in winnipeg). Had the same results you had, but I'm not worried about it. I let it get up to normal operating temp, took her for a quick spin, then rev'd @ 3500rpm for 10 sec and shut her down. I'd say plug in though, just to be nice to your car

By the way, thanks for the snow, Calgary!!!!!

 

god bless living in the south lol.

 

I know i hate calgary! and yeah did the RPM in your car go up and then down for a few seconds? and yeah as soon im gonna plug my car from now on for sure, hopefully the rpm thing doesnt happen anympore

 

your rpm only goes to 2900? lol mine jumps up to about 3400

 

Wussy.

 

Yeah I dunno about you, but mine started fine. (Stock 2006 GT)

 

Next time when your RPM is going up and down push in the clutch. Most probably the RPM wont jump anymore. There is a switch behind the clutch pedal and I think that is the culprit for idle jumping when you start your car. Probably in cold weather that switch is malfunctioning.

 

The cold transmission gears even spinning in neutral also constitute a significant load for the engine - best let the engine run unburdened for a bit before letting out the clutch.

 

thanks for all the imput guys! I did notice that when using the clutch the RPM will staay at about 2500 or so, is the jumping rpm any normal? or like he said the switch might be just broken?

 

No it's normal.

 

just about every (newer) car will rev at a higher RPM on a cold start, the ECU is controlling the engines rpm to get it to maintain normal operationg temperature as fast as possible, while not putting the engine in danger. you can rev the **** out of your car on a cold start and sure it will warm up fast but at what cost? the longevity and reliability of just about every aspect of your engine. your car is acting completely normal so i would advise to just let it do its thing, but having that oil pan heater can only make things easier for your motor so you should still use that anyways.

as stated before when the trans is cold the oil inside is very cold and very thick, therefore putting a much heavier load on the gears. in return, that putts a load on the engine, hence the reason you saw an rpm drop once the clutch was pushed in.

i kinda skimmed and i think some one already said in, when starting your car just hold the clutch in for 30 sec to 1 minute (IMO) just to let the engine start doing its thing. then you should be fine.

 

Geez. That's cold.

 

For the benefit of most of the readers on this forum, that's -11.2º.

 

I put these two links here for your reference. Read them and see if it is similar to what you are experiencing.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-trouble-shooting-95/strange-annoying-issue-206564/

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-trouble-shooting-95/idle-seek-only-when-gear-clutch-193779/