LILBENZ230

My car spends virtually every night in a temp controlled garage at my house. It's 70F all year in there. But during the snowstorm here, I've been staying somewhere else and the Benz has been outside. It's not terribly cold (high 20s and low 30s) but since it has been outside it has developed a cough/sputter when I start it for the first time. It has no CEL, no stored codes, and no MFD error messages at all. Since it just started the first morning after spending the night outside in the cold, I'm pretty confident that once back in its garage space it will not do it anymore - still, it's annoying to think it's going to sound like a POS every time it gets left outside. The next night or two will see temps in the low teens and single digits and that will be interesting.

I recorded a video with my iPhone, but I'm not sure how well you can detect the few sputters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR7vlLtcLCs

Anyone else have these issues and know what the cause is and if I can fix it somehow?

tommy

Only have one-night stands with guys with garages?

That's not normal, and even if it does go away when you get back to the garage, I wouldn't let it go. I'm sure Glyn will offer up some things to look at shortly. Is the sound from the rear end or the engine bay?

LILBENZ230

Engine bay. It's a few sputters, then all is normal.

phister

if you're worried about it you can always buy an engine blocker heater.

pcy

some part is at the verge of misbehaving. Try to isolate that part. 20s and 30s is not cold. Try single digits or negative temp. Even with those temps, my car doesn't sputter.

When I read the following: "since it has been outside it has developed a cough/sputter". For a sec I thought you were talking about your pet. :-)

Pun aside, first few seconds after the start up, car is in open-loop, O2 sensors' output is ignored... cats are being warmed up... how about the fuel pump? may be the fuel pump is being lazy at the cold temps?

Glyn M Ruck

Sounds absolutely normal for a cold M271. Wait until you start one at minus 40 in Harbin - NE China. Change plugs if it bothers you.

LILBENZ230

Really? It's been out before in these temps without the initial sputter.

I have plugs and fuel filter ready to be installed, just one obstacle right after another has prevented it up to this point. It was 33F at the video taped start up - that's not that cold. Certainly not cold enough for engine block heater.

W203E35

I see your problem!!! You got an iPhone instead of a Droid. Just get a Droid and it'll solve all your problems.

As for the car..you're just paranoid.

"Get a Droid and stop being Paranoid" loool waz up!!!

LILBENZ230

Droid When I want to scrap a quality product for something inferior, I'll go big and also ditch the Benz for a Cavalier.

No paranoia here. The car most definitely sputters on cold start when outside, it most definitely didn't do it last winter, and it most definitely doesn't do it when its been garaged all night. Something isn't right, but I have no idea what it is.

havoc_vulture

Over here where i live mornings are 40 45-52 at the moment and it does it only on the cold start after that no more sputters. I think i read something about catalyst warming up or something? correct me if I'm wrong. Other than that my car does it.

W203E35

He just doesn't want to accept that Droid is a better phone. Poor verizon people are gonna get the iPhone and then find out what kind of junk it is and switch back to their Droid.

Glyn M Ruck

The iPhone is just a cheap plastic fashion statement made in Asia.

Matt - just change the plugs. If you want to then clean the MAF. You might be on a tank of summer fuel?? Your mixture enrichment is obviously OK or you would get a fuel trim code. I don't know how good your O2 sensors are - they are approaching change time.

I'll bet she has stored some misfires but not enough to trigger a CEL - You can check with a scanner.

Do plugs first. Have they ever been changed? If I understand correctly - she clears her throat pretty quickly. Spluttery cold starts are usually plugs. I know your car does quite a few longer trips so it's plugs have probably done well. On a 4 cylinder with only 4 plugs you notice the odd misfire a lot more than a 6 with 12 plugs. I would not loose any sleep.

LILBENZ230

Yep it clears up pretty quickly. The plugs are the originals, but this is the first hint of anything being awry. Speaking of that, I have already bought the OEM Bosch plugs - do you know if they are pre-gapped?

As far as my iPhone, I like it. It's quite easy to use and suits my needs just fine.

Glyn M Ruck

Bosch plugs are pre-gapped.

tommy

Well, Apple must have a damn good supplier, then, because the plastic around my 4gen sure feels like metal.

mskembo

Mine is doing the same thing... only sometimes it take two to three tries to start up. However, the past week I've been in Longview living at a hotel during the week, and it starts up the first time everytime. I think it's probably because my house has a pretty steep driveway, and the fuel pump is lazy on cold mornings.

LILBENZ230

Not only that, but on my iPhone4 the front and back appear to be glass. Where is all this plastic? The touch screen interface on the iPhone is so vastly superior to the Droid models that it can't even be considered a fair comparison.

mskembo

I will (try) refrain from going full rant on this, but it's Wal-Mart... Everybody LOVED Wally-World when they were the new kid in town offering cheap stuff to the masses, but as soon as they got too big now they are Satan. Same thing with Microsoft when they were going up against IBM, and Apple when it was going up against Microsoft.

Some (idiots) people, just want to hate. It's in there DNA (most of them are on the left Lil) they root for the underdog who doesn't look like he'll ever be able to succeed, but as soon as he does they try to drag him back down.

But to the original discussion. My job is in IT Security, and I spent the last year doing research for my companies mobile device security policy. Here is the short answer. Droid is a toy, nothing more nothing less. It has no security features on it that would allow it to be viable in an enterprise, and until 2.1 it wasn't even able to use ActiveSync. Meaning that it couldn't communicate effectively with Exchange servers. iPhones (3gs and 4) have built in hardware encryption which makes the device more robust from a security standpoint, but does not have enterprise support from Apple. Blackberry is the only "True" enterprise smartphone.

That being said, I hate Blackberries, they are underpowered. I love my iPhone the performance is light years ahead of any android phone on the planet, and the interface is much nicer IMHO.

pcy

Thanks guys for the feedback on iPhones, Android, and BlackBerry. Now, can we go back to the OP's problem? :-)

I am curious about the cold start sputering issue.

mskembo

Oh yeah! about that... I changed my fuel filter last night (in the freezing cold, and in the parking lot of the hotel I'm staying at this week). This morning it started up much easier, but once it started it was still sputtering a little as it warmed up. I plan on changing my O2 sensors this weekend if I get the chance, and if that doesn't do it I'm going to change my MAF.

I think it's an engine management issue, that will need to be resolved by changing the O2 sensors or MAF. It's curious that it only happens when it's cold outside, and only when it's been sitting for more than eight hours.

LILBENZ230

I have the OEM fuel filter ready to be installed, but I can't do it myself. That being said and all, mine only sputters for a moment as the engine starts. Crank-crank-crank-sputter-normal idle. It never returns after that. No sputters while driving, no codes (stored or otherwise), no sputters after the initial start.

Glyn says replace plugs. Doing the plugs and the filter will hopefully solve this little annoyance.