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Car Forum / GMC Cars / November 2005Larger Battery = Easier Starting?
Greetings, My wife owns a 2005 Pontiac Vibe, and although the car is in a very good state of tune, it still takes the starter a few extra seconds to turn over the motor than feels right. I am normally used to a vehicle turning over after spinning the starter for 2-3 seconds, but the Vibe takes 4-5 seconds for the engine to run on its own even when warm. It's not that the starter motor turns any slower than feels normal, just that the car's engine doesn't begin to run on it's own as quickly as I feel it should. I have seen at least one reference on a discussion site where the author stated that installing a larger battery with more cold cranking amps than what came with the car would make it easier to start (something to do with generating a hotter ignition spark). Is this a reasonable explanation or just a lot of hot air? Will installing a battery with more CCA make the car easier to start? Thanks for any and all words of wisdom. Cheers - Jonathan >Greetings, > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > >Cheers - Jonathan Won't make any difference if cranking speed is up to standard with the existing battery. Check cranking voltage to be sure. > Greetings, > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > after spinning the starter for 2-3 seconds, but the Vibe takes 4-5 seconds > for the engine to run on its own even when warm. <snip> The Vibe uses a Toyota powertrain. You might want to ask about it on a Toyota list. I doubt that a modern vehicle will see improved starting performance from a larger battery. You could test it out by hooking a second battery up to your vehicle using jumper cables and comparing the start time with the extra battery to the normal configuration. I suspect that you will find no difference. My guess is that your 4-5 second start up time is a characteristic of the engine management system, perhaps allowing for some oil circulation or some such before firing off the fuel injectors and spark. Note that this is pure speculation on my part. John >> Greetings, >> [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > John I thought the same thing. It sounds like a feature to me. It's probably a good idea, too. What big batteries help is SLOW cranking, not lengthy cranking. Try this: Turn the key to the "ON" position, wait a few seconds, then crank the engine. See what happens. > Greetings, > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > Cheers - Jonathan Steve, What you describe is our standard starting procedure, not so much for anything except habit. Both my wife and I are used to driving diesels and waiting for the glow plugs to heat up before starting, hence the delay. This was the very first thing I suggested to my wife but it doesn't seem to help. The stock battery on the 2003-2004 Vibes was an anemic 330 CCA, but our battery is 550 CCA, so I guess I'm answering my own question in that a higher capacity battery won't help us all that much. After reading many posts on other forums, there are folks out there who have much worse starting problems with the 330 CCA battery than we do where a new battery helped them greatly, but I'm not inclined to spend the cash right now unless I know for sure that moving up to a battery with 800 CCA or more will definitely improve things for us. It's not really a "problem" for us so to speak, just more of an annoyance. Cheers - Jonathan > Try this: > > Turn the key to the "ON" position, wait a few seconds, then crank the > engine. See what happens. I was just thinking, my '95 Monte starts in a split second. Can't even hear the starter cranking because the engine starts so fast. But my wife's Honda cranks for quite a while before it runs. Must just be a function of the make/model vehicle. Steve > What you describe is our standard starting procedure, not so much for > anything except habit. Both my wife and I are used to driving diesels and [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > > Turn the key to the "ON" position, wait a few seconds, then crank the > > engine. See what happens. >Try this: > >Turn the key to the "ON" position, wait a few seconds, then crank the >engine. See what happens. Or better yet, turn on key for 3-5 seconds, then turn off and back on - attempt to start. If it starts quicker now, you know your fuel pump is loosing pressure sitting. >> Greetings, >> [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] >> >> Cheers - Jonathan > On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 15:18:28 GMT, "Steve Mackie" > Or better yet, turn on key for 3-5 seconds, then turn off and back on > - attempt to start. If it starts quicker now, you know your fuel pump > is loosing pressure sitting. Clarence, I just checked out your website and that "Corvair" project is fascinating! It sounded a lot better than most Corvair engines that I've heard. Clarence, are you by any chance one of the Kitchener area Snyders? If so, do you have a relative, Russ Snyder, over in the Burlington area? Just curious. Has it occured to anybody that you should be able to start your car with a dead battery, if you have to? A safe, relatively convenient, non-electric, manual method of starting the engine is possible. Get rid of the battery-dependent computerized fuel injection, computerized ignition and electric fuel pump and it might be possible: Use mechanical fuel injection, an impulse magneto ignition, and mechanical fuel pump booster. Then all you have to do is to crank the engine. There are several possible schemes for manually turning over the engine to start it. One very effective scheme would be to do it with the brake pedal. You would switch into a manual crank mode, then pump the pedal a few times to spin up a flywheel starter, then press the gas pedal to engage the starter to crank the engine. All it takes is one turn of the crankshaft to start an engine, believe it or not, that's how little kinetic energy need be stored by this unique mechanical starter. Using the brake pedal to pump a flywheel would take little effort; your grandma could do it. Sooner or later, your battery will go dead and you won't have help. This option would come in handy when that happens. GM needs some innovations to stay ahead of Toyota, the worlds most fierce competitor. A manual start capability is only one of many such innovations which would set apart GM cars from the rest. > Greetings, > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > Cheers - Jonathan Something else that no one mentioned is to check your basic tune up stuff, if you haven't already. My car starts slowly when it needs a tune up, after a tune up all I have to do is bump the engine and it cranks right up. Even at 9,000 ft. and 10 degrees outside. How about slow build up of fuel pressure, (weak pump, regulator, clog filter, leaking injector) If you have fuel pressure guage, check pressure before, during and after starting. >> Greetings, >> [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > tune up, after a tune up all I have to do is bump the engine and it > cranks right up. Even at 9,000 ft. and 10 degrees outside. Johnathan, 4-5 second starting time sounds within reason. I currently run a Sears Rangehandler in my Bonneville. Its a 1000 CA / 900 CCA battery. 100 month warranty. I didn't notice any additional starting time from the previous battery which was about a 800 CA battery. On my car, If you count one, two, three on start up, the car is running before you complete saying the word two. Good Luck Harryface 05 Park Avenue, 32,391 91 Bonneville LE 304,498 > Johnathan, > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Good Luck That is one thing I always loved about my '91 Bonnie. Even on the coldest days, one crank and 2 seconds would get her running. Several times I would even leave interior lights or what not on for quite some time. Come out, and she would still fire right up. |
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