Ok, heres my wonderful story that made me cry. where i live in wisconsin, we had a t-storm at about 5:45 pm, and about 55 mph winds and 2 feet of rainfall. well waking up this morning, i went out to drive my car to go to school, and as i turned it on, it turned over and the rpm jumped to 4000 like it always does, and as it went back down, it died. i was about to cry. i turned it over again, and it did the same thing. i tried it about 6 times and then i gave up. later that day at about 1 i came home from school for lunch, turned it over and it ran fine. I was so happy ... so the question is ... does anyone know why this might of happen? the only thing i have is my cold air intake which was put in about a week ago ... hope it doesnt happen ne more tho .. i guess ill have to try it agian tomorrow ... thanks ..

 

I've heard that problem a couple of times. Trying to remember what the conditions were, I believe weather was a factor, but it was because it was cold and snowing. Not sure exactly what it was like for you in Wi, but I don't think it's snowing out there quite yet. The only remedy I can think of is to keep the revs high for a few minutes, which will allow the engine to warm up and run any crap it's feeling out. Or you could cheat and adjust the throttle body nut so it idles higher.

 

4,000RPM is too high for warmup if I remember correctly. Sounds like something's wrong. I'd try resetting the ECU, and if that doesn't change things at all, either take it to the dealership or start checking all sensors, vac lines, and pretty much anything else that could get loose under the hood.

 

resetting would be your best bet.

 

never ever rev the engine up when it's cold, you'll be sorry.

 

Then why does my car (and most people I know) automatically stay at around 2500 rpms for a few minutes on cold days before settling back down at about 1000 idle? Maybe I wasn't clear, I wasn't saying to rev the engine to redline or anything, but to use the throttle to keep the revs up to around 2000-2500 to keep it from stalling. I know you don't want to run a motor hard before the oil works its way into it, but under 3000 should be fine... right? My understanding is that computer controlled engines idle higher (around 2000-3000) for the first 3-20 minutes on cold days to help warm and move the oil.

 

You can rev it as long as there's oil. I wouldn't go redlining it or anything, but I don't think he's going to sieze anything under these conditions. Cold oil isn't going to kill the car (it'll just warm up quickly), but no oil certainly will do it quickly. The ECU does this by its own design to bring the car to operating temp more efficiently. On the other hand 4,000RPM's is high, and the stalling clearly isn't good.

 

I'm trying to remember the last person who had a problem like this. It was a simple fix, but I can't tell what... oh yeah, did you make sure you didn't damage your MAS honeycomb when you installed the CAI? Other than that, I need to shut up and let Andrew take over. Engines are not my department.

 

i second hobie's advice. reset the ECU. when you do so, remember to let it run for a good 10 minutes without any user input. turn the key and let it run, so it can do its self-analysis/programming. i had issues with my injen CAI when i first got it, but this ECU reset procedure solved them for me.

 

where the hell do you live brah....im in milwaukee and we had a storm but it wasnt too bad....there was some downed trees but it wasnt that bad.......anyways sorry about your car problems

 

Maybe he's in the upper peninsula, I visited there once and almost any weather condition is possible there. When I was there, the highs were around 14 degrees, and they were having a "heat wave"!!! Nothing surprises me for weather up there, and I'm staying in sunny CA for a reason.

 

Thanks everyone for the input. ill restart my ECU tomorrow. and by the way im in sheboygan, about 1 hour north of milwaukee. thanks for the help. any info really helps. thanks again .

 

Best of luck. I hope it's just that simple.

 

maybe from all the rain some water went into ur cold air intake since the filter sits lower than short rams..?

i duno, but good luck w/it heh

 

COULD be water in through the CAI.... but if such were the case, the car would have to be running at the time. only the engine sucking in air could pull water all the way up the CAI piping (that's what happened to me )... and it seems like this just happened overnight. i'm betting the ECU just never got a chance to adapt to the CAI, and an ECU reset'll give it the perfect opportunity.