Blue S2

Why should the clutch be in?? Our cars fire up without the clutch. Then again, i dont drive my car when its this damn cold.

adrian_jaye

when the clutch is in your disengage it from the drive train,
I've always done that.
in fact if you check your owners manual, it recomends starting the car with the clutch in, no gas, and not releasing the key until "after" the engine has started

951Tom

If you start the car with the clutch out, the starter also spins the drive shaft and gears in the transmission. This means the starter has to work harder.

Sami951

Good battery, 0W40 Mobil 1 -> no worries. Or at least it seemed to work with my 944S, which only has that tiny 2.5l engine (coldest startup was around -30C (about -20F if I got it right)). Clutch in definately helps...

josephsc

I'm jealous that you can start up at -30C. I'm at around -15C, recharged the battery overnight, and still no go. If it wasn't so darn cold outside, I'd pull out the starter to service it. Guess I'm waiting until we thaw out a bit...

Sami951

Well I only had to do it once Usually temps don't go much below -15C here in southern Finland... and right now it's just around -8C - even the damn Peugeot I've been driving around lately starts up fine in such warm weather, lol

That 5-30 oil you have in now, is it fully synthetic? Makes a big difference! If it's not too much trouble you could try 0W40 or something like that. Also make sure your coolant has enough antifreeze in it (no reason to run anything but 50/50 anyway), basic stuff I know but it would really suck to break a block by freezing it...

josephsc

Yep -- fully synthetic and got anti-freeze. I'm starting to think that the starter needs to be cleaned and geared up -- this is the first time it's ever had to work so hard. The car spent its entire life in sunny California until now...

Sami951

True... either that, or then the battery... now that I think about it, when I first bought the 944S the starter gave a really weird grinding noise when cranking it, and the shop where I got the car from agreed to replace it. No clue if they put in an entirely new one or a second hand piece, but there's a chance it was new -> no wonder it got the car going really well in those low temps

PorscheDoc

What are the cold cranking amps on your battery? If you have something like a 550-600 CCA battery, good luck. Slap in something with around 1000CCA and she should fire up even when it is 40 below. I ran 5-30 in sub zero temps with no problems at all. Cold weather starting usually comes down to how strong your battery is.

josephsc

Thanks, that's definitely worthwhile looking into -- but a 1000 CCA is probably not attainable. What battery are you guys using up north where it's even colder?

I'm currently using almost new Interstate MT-47 which is only rated to 590 CCA (so why do we like Interstate so much?). The S2 also used the same battery, but I have a 968 engine and Porsche went to a bigger battery (group 91) for the 968 (Interstate version is 700 CCA) - but I don't know if it'll fit -- it's 2inches longer. Anyone know the highest CCA battery, or largest dimension, that will fit into a standard 944 shell?

Zero10

My car has a 2-year old battery, that happens to be the tiniest one that Canadian Tire sold, stupid PO, but I can still run my stereo for 5 or 6 hours and it will start (have never run it longer than that), and it still starts every freezing morning. It's only 450CCA.

adie

I'm in the same boat, car started fine in the summer but the past 2 days at -20 it's not been to happy, I have found that stamping the throttle loads of times whilst cranking gets it started everytime (i'm guessing the pressure relief valve is weak and fuel pressure is dropping off whilst it stands), this was through frustration rather than scientefic fact, however it works for me. I went to Canadian tire and surprisingly there was someone who knew what he was talking about, whilst the 12 year old was determined to sell me a new battery before he could let me talk the man who actually works there agreed to my request for a drop test on the battery, the battery passed with flying colours, and the high school drop out still hadn't located the correct battery for my car. hadn't thought about changing the oil, need to find a kendall supplier out here. I did buy a battery pack starter thing as they had them on sale and some decient jump leads for half price just in case, the first time I hooked up the battery pack it made little difference so i guessed it was due to the either the oil or my other thought was that the fuel was freezing, have definatly swapped to high octane as it can only help. was going to park it in the garage but have 4 ft of snow to clear before that happens and there would be a high risk of getting snowed in. have thought of getting an old blanket and folding a load of tin foil in it, than placing it over the engine when I park it up for the night to try and retain some of the heat under there, still not sure if at -30 it's going to do much.

PorscheDoc

uh i am running a 1000cca battery in my truck, so they are attainable. Thats what i used when i was up in North Dakota. A 590cca is absolutely worthless. the current 1000cca battery in my truck was bought down here in kansas. Last one lasted 9 years

MHT

My 2c as far as the clutch in or out question is concerned. If you depress the clutch pedal and then start the car, you are putting a large thrust load on the crank when there is little or no lubrication between the thrust bearing and the crank. Unless it's really cold, I try to start my cars with the trans. in neutral and my foot off the clutch. There is no doubt that the starter has to work harder to turn the input shaft of the trans, but starters are cheaper than engines. I recently took apart a 993 engine with about 20k miles, the thrust bearing was down to copper. That car is fitted with a clutch safety switch. This was the first time I had ever had the chance to take apart an engine with so few miles and I was surprised at the amount of wear in such a short period of time.

josephsc

Karl, wow, so I guess nothing is "unattainable" with enough work -- so how does a truck battery fit in your car? What size battery is that? I'd be very interested in finding the larger/stronger battery that would fit (unless it requires heck of alot of work).

Thanks for all the input!