My car recently had some hesitation or requires more "effort" to start-up when I ignite my car. It was smooth and quick before, but now it felt like struggling a bit and sometimes it requires longer to "start-up" or ignite the engine.

What could be the cause? Distributor? Starter? Spark plugs? Spark Plug wires? Inigitor?

My car has almost 160,000 KMs (roughly 90,000 miles?)
If that helps...

Thank you in advance.

 

Battery probably needs replacement.

 

+1...its probably just your battery man.. GL

 

oh yeah, how can i missed someone so simple? maybe i should get the battery tested.

thanks for the quick inputs

 

I have to bring this thread back to life lol- don't want to start new thread for the same topic

Have been experiencing the same hesitation during start up in the morning. I don't think its my battery- i have red top- seems to be working fine. 54K on the clock
Any ideas?

 

get it tested anyway, its most likely the cause, even if it doesnt seem weak. it could also be your plugs but doubt it on such a low mileage car.

again, its probably the battery and replacing it will most likely do the trick

 

^hmm i thought red top batteries hold longer than that. Anyway, I changed the spark plugs last year.

 

any news? was it the battery?

there are always a bad apple on a bunch, same goes for everything, a defective part in a crate of them. machines are only as smart as their creators.

 

^ haven't had a chance to test the battery yet. Will do that next week

 

Ok, just tested out the battery and it shows 12.49V thats the red top i have in the TL
I also tested one of my other cars and it showed 12.61V so i guess my red top in the TL is ok. There is hesitation and i am not sure what could it be?

 

Optimas absolutely suck! I would use a $60 battery over an Optima any day. They're living off of an old reputation that should have died 10 years ago when their quality died.

Can't you guys hear how quickly or slowly it turns over on the starter before it fires? You can tell by ear if its turning over too slowly.

 

That's not a guarantee the battery is good.

 

I might look into getting the one you recommend- DieHard Platinum Automotive Battery Group Size 35

Yeah, i can hear it- its like on a slow motion when it is turning and then it fires right up- its like its choking before it fires up.

 

It's a long shot but when I was having similar problems I eventually (after replacing alternator and battery) found a bad factory crimp on the charging wire. As far as I know I'm the only one around here that has had this problem but before you spend money you might try starting the car when its dead cold, let it run for a couple minutes, shut it off; and feel the wire that goes between the fuse box and the battery. If its hot especially at the fuse box, that could be the problem. Again, very unlikely but something to try. It won't allow the battery to fully charge.

 

Standing voltage on a battery tells you nothing about its internal resistance, which is the major factor of determining power available under load. However, it does mean something. 12.5-12.6V after the car has been sitting at least a few hours is good. To adequately test it you need to load it down substantially, or try and measure the voltage while cranking, which can be problematic without a fast DMM or scope.

It shouldn't be that hard to determine if the engine is cranking slowly. You can probably even find a video or two of similar vehicles starting up to compare yours to. Most parts stores will test it for free.

 

I will look into that

 

I tested the battery at home before starting the car. I also tested one of my friends car after being driven for several hours and it showed 12.61V

 

I'm curious to how you're testing the battery. I'll back up what I_Hate_Cars and ZOMGVTEK said; you can't simply hook up a voltmeter. Honestly man. You can't! You have to put a load on it. Also, something that hasn't been mentioned-is if you're terminals are corroded, you'll have the same negative effect as a dying battery.

 

All that means is the battery is not for sure bad but it doesn't mean it's good. If it had tested in the high 10s chances are its bad. So testing volts can tell you if it's bad but it can't tell you if it's good.

Have you measured voltage with the engine running?

 

^Good point. With the engine running,the battery should be receiving a voltage of 13.8V -ish and up.

 

I make sure the terminals are clean- not too long ago i cleaned them again just to be sure

 

I have tested the battery with the engine running yet- i will do that tonight

 

Don't you have an auto parts store locally that can test the battery for you? They can measure the internal resistance, which typically is what really matters when it comes to cranking an engine. The result is generally displayed in CA, and they compare it to what the battery claims the CA is to give you a relative health. The last time I was at the dealer they do this, most dealers will probably test it for free as well. You simply can't do this without the proper tool, and a volt meter is not it.

Measuring battery voltage isn't going to tell you much, car running or not. You need to know how to interpret that data if you want it to be of any use.

 

^ i will stop at the local autozone and have them test the battery

 

Ok, just did the test with engine running- it showed 14.21V

 

That's good (and about .4v higher than mine). Just like with battery voltage it doesn't mean everything is fine but if you had a low number you would have known to start looking at other areas.

Maybe others can post up what voltage their TL charges at assuming no major draws like seat heaters and rear window defoggers and a battery that's been maintained. Is my 13.8v closer to normal or is your 14.2v closer to normal. I'm guessing yours is normal because I still haven't bought a new positive cable yet.

The main reason I bring it up is others expressed concern that high charging voltages (not sure if amperage was expressed) will kill the AGM and gel batteries quicker than normal. I'm not really a believer in that but I thought I would bring it up.

 

Matt, I wonder if you have ever noticed that the terminal on the die hard platinum is a little to small for the factory clamp. Both positive and negative. The idle issue that i had mentioned was actually fixed upon your recommendation. It was not the factory crimp but it had something to do with the positive clamp not making proper contact. I didnt even assume so i never looked at it closely. I was doing something and moved the clamp by accident. No matter how much i tightened, it just wouldn't hold that well. I wedged a small neil in front and retightened. Now there is no chance it can move and the idle is as you described in some of the other threads.

 

So, my only option now is to bring the battery to my local autozone and have them check it to see if its good or bad.

 

The measurement you are taking provides voltage, not amperage. If you have a load meter, use that. When you take it to your local auto parts store, the meter they will use places a demand on your battery. The voltage can still be good even though the battery may have a faulty cell.

 

I got the wrong size by accident. But maybe that was a good thing, both of my terminals are tight, they almost seemed slightly larger than the Optima I had in there before because I had to loosen them even more to get them over the DieHard's terminals.

Glad you found the problem. These cars are way too sensitive to voltage issues.

 

Cold, I might get 14.3x-14.4xV for a few minutes, but its almost always 14.2 and I don't know if I ever noticed it below 14.1v while running.

It's impressively stable, even when flipping both heated seats on high, defroster, headlights, fogs... It rarely moves.

 

Ok, just tested the battery, engine off, and it showed 0.15mA
With the engine on- 0.17m
Btw, just tested again the voltage and it showed 12.38V

 

Good luck. You don't seem to be taking any of our advice.

 

^will stop today at autozone to have them check the battery

 

ok, stopped by advance auto parts instead and got the battery check test.

 

[quote=luminous-TL;11885655]My car recently had some hesitation or requires more "effort" to start-up when I ignite my car. It was smooth and quick before, but now it felt like struggling a bit and sometimes it requires longer to "start-up" or ignite the engine.

What could be the cause? Distributor? Starter? Spark plugs? Spark Plug wires? Inigitor?

My car has almost 160,000 KMs (roughly 90,000 miles?)
If that helps...

I had the same problem and I thought it was the starter when really it's the battery. Make sure to get a good brand!

 

[QUOTE=kaushiknair;14471890]I've changed the batteries and spark plugs in both of my TL and relay switch and still have this issue.