Lots of codes after flooding. Starting jitters when cold
 

Hello again !

Some History : I have a stock '04 AT model with 114k on the car and around 40k on the engine. I did a stupid thing and let the car sit for a few days in the bitter Michigan cold on the street without starting it. It ,naturally, failed to start until i deflooded it . I experienced some trouble with the throttle body valve but after a few posts from fellow members , i was able to clear it out by cleaning it up properly. It appeared to have jammed up because of the cold and some carbon build up. I also changed the plugs and the wires and coils are less than 5k old.

The Problem : Starting up the car, it does not take long to start up. But after that, the idle seems like its going to die soon until it has warmed up a bit. During that time, it shakes terribly and even if i depress the gas pedal a bit, it stays barely above 800 rpm. After a few seconds of stuttering, the needle goes to the regular 2000 rpm for warm up and then slowly drops down to 1500 and then finally to 800 when fully warm. The engine has absolutley no other problems during hot starts or full throttle responses. There is no loss of power that i can feel. There are a few CEL codes that have come up and i have done some reasearch on them I will list them below.

CEL Codes :

P0102 : MAF sensor low input
P0300 : Random misfire detected
P0302 : Rear rotor misfire detected
P0335 : ESPS circuit problem
P2096 : Target A/F system too lean
P2270 : HO2S signal stuck lean


I have already reset the ESPS but since i am parked on the street and do not have access to garage regularly, i am not able to get to it easily to take it out and clean. I have already sprayed it down with electrical cleaner but maybe something is stuck with it. I will have to take it out and clean it.

I have also cleaned the MAF with spray cleaner . Also, I have taken it on a hard drive at night to check for a glowing CAT but i havent been able to see anything glowing so i am ruling it out for now.

The CEL blinks ( i am guessing for misfires ) only at the start up and never when i am driving it, no matter how hard. I can feel the misfire when the engine has just started as it stutters but after a while, its fine. If it let it sit for around 4 hours, it has the same starting issues all over . Before then, it starts up and idles much better.
Also, i noticed that today when the weather was mildly warm ( 50 F ) in the morning, it smoothed out much faster. Maybe it was the fuel injector cleaner that had worked...or maybe just not that damn cold any more to cause trouble .

I have summed up the problem as much as i could. I have already gone through all the posts i could find related to the codes and found that most of the time, these accompany hot start issues or some other very obvious tell tales like blow back or coolant level drop . But i haven't found anything that matches to my problems collectively.

Looking forward to fixing the car with your suggestions.

tl;dr (the whole thing)

After cleaning the ESPS/MAF sensor, did you clear the KAM and NVRAM (unplug battery, pump brake pedal to drain memory, then re-attach/ turn car to "ON" position without starting, pump brake quickly until oil gauge sweeps, then fire up engine)?

i did the 20 brake stomp procedure after cleaning the esps. i did not clear the kam and nvram . i am going to do that next but i have a feeling its not going to be this simple.

Still no good
 

Only one reply :( I am miffed. Anyways, I cleaned the shit out of the ess and the TB and the MAF. That seems to have taken care of all the emission related codes . So, YAY for that . But the starting problems continue. The weather has not eased out at all. Its still 30 degrees most of the time here and my access to the garage is still on the weekends. I am planning to take care of it this weekend for sure. Please do give me suggestions.

I will post a video of when it starts up from cold. The engine knocks like crazy when its a cold start but only for the first 15 seconds. It feels like its going to die as the rpm hoovers at 700-800 and then after 15 seconds or so, it jumps to 2000 and it feels fine. During that time, the CEL flashes and with my OBD plugged in, i can see that its either P0300 or P0302. Before cleaning the ess etc, it was P0301 ...so its housing 2 this time.

I am also going to check the coils by using the tester . Also, there is a lot of smelly ( more than usual :) exhaust at the start up. Also, i feel a lack of power but only a tiny bit and that too at low rpms...i wonder what it is.

Looking forward to suggestions. I know its long winded but i want to explain it as well as i can.

A video of the car
 

http://youtu.be/HY-8F8wQEr4

Check out the knocking and how it smoothes out after about it 20 seconds.

I had misfires after a flood. Ended up replacing the entire ignition system (coils, plugs, & wires) to fix it. Expensive, but the car starts up better than ever. Wish I could say I got a boost to MPG & power but alas, I have not noticed anything other than distortion from my driver side Bose speaker (gets better if I turn the bass down) and the same crappy A/C.

Thanks for looking in. I can understand why the would be misfire after flooding. It most probably happens because of fouled plugs. And if they are the only culprit, they should be changed... In my case, I did change them. Also, my coil and wires are less than 4000 miles old. I was supposed to check them out today but never got the time to. I will definitely do that today and post my findings here.

Search for rattle hunt in the dig section. There is some really good step by step of eliminating that speaker rattle.

Thanks for the wishes and reply once again.

what kind of oil did u put in it last and how long has it been? it kinda sounds like its molasses. Mine did that a couple of years ago and i thought maybe it got so cold the oil was thick. I was right. I changed it and it fixed it. It was also during a bitter cold winter.

I hope mine also goes away once the winter goes away... but it dosen't seem like the oil is causing the trouble. I had the oil change less than 300 miles ago and the problem existed before as well. I would prefer not to drive the car in this condition but its my only car and there isn't any public transport in my part of the country. The oil i use is 5w30 from penzoil .

with a flashing CEL on startup i'd go to a dealer even tho it goes away. im thinking maybe possibly a ssv may be stuck open or something and it breaks loose when it warms up. idk. not sure that would throw a code but im just spitballing. go get that looked at. no easy answer on that.