Engine Cold start surging

Cold start surging

Ive had my corolla about 6 months now and since about mid december (once it got real cold) my engine surges at the very beginning of the warm up period. It seems to only happen for 15 to 30 sec. and only happens when the car is left outside overnight. It surges rapidly from about 1000 to 2000 rpm. I think its an issue related to the temperature since when i bring it indoors for the night it starts up calmly. Anyone else encounter this and if so any solution?

I get that problem too, but i get it in the summer sometimes too, anyway cars tend to run richer when the engines cold, which is probably whats causing the surging and also a reason why the exhaust fumes are thicker until the car warms up. If its fine when the car has been in the garage I wouldnt worry about it. If is starts happening alot and consistently, check the plugs, wires, etc., the usual

Hey thanks for the tips. I know the car runs rich when its cold but it seems that the surging is excessive. I will probably just go ahead and change the wires and plugs since it looks like they havnt been touched in a while and ill look into any TSBs for my model/year. Again thanks for the advice.

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yah mine does this too mine shoots up to 2k but only so often i actually found my motor runs better when it does this. idk that might be other things. but if it starts and the rpms are low my motor does run as smooth until i shut it off and start again. but again could be other things.

Oh yes dude, my 04' goes nuts and hates cold starts below 20 degrees.... I just turn the key to accesories and let the car sit for a quick 10 seconds to let the MAF read up and set and then crank her on, it likes it a bit better but it still idles freakin weird lol... Had me worried during these cold ass days we had not too long ago.

well define different, if it smells like gas then its rich, if it smells like cotton candy then enjoy the blessing, lol

maybe when its cold the gas just doesnt burn as well, and when the rest of the motor is warmed up all the smells from different parts of the engine combine and you dont really notice the smell of gas as much?.. eh

my dad thinks that the surging problem I have is from my head gasket leaking, and water is sitting on my pistons, of course when he said that I was like, psshhh no way, and denied my car having that big of a problem, lol. I still dont know if thats why it was surging and studdering but i did find a large amount of oil on my power steering pump, and all over everything, it all seems to be originating from the seal between the head and block. So that sucks. And Im think thats why my power steering has been locking up, cuz the belt is slipping in the oil, i dont even know how to prevent that but its dangerous

mine has this too i just changed my oil and i noticed a lot by the back. but this is typical izzy motor. its also know as the disappearing oil in our corollas which i hate i read from a toyota tech that something is loose back there causing the problem but its in such a bad place and its cold so im gonna wait to really look at this problem. Just keep puttin the oil in i guess.

check the timing chain tensioner. those tend to leak on the 1zz motors. p/s back of the motor

Ill havta check everything in the spring, but i stuck a light up in there and theres a line of seeping oil along the seal between the head and the block. The thing has always lost oil and I do all my own oil changes and I never noticed the seepage before, I always thought it was just burning it but maybe its a little bit of both. I took my car to my grandparents to work on the suspension pops Ive been hearing and after I put the ramps up there was oil runoff in the driveway. So I got to find 2 things wrong with my car

i havnt noticed any seepage in the head at all. when i get a chance ill take a good look at it. BUu if that was the case how would that make it surge so much in the cold?

It wouldnt, i was just ranting bout my own problems. My problem is it wont move at first then surges, like theres no power then it all comes back

Could be a head gasket, and that makes sense that you get all your power in the high end because of the loss of compression. Rent a compression gauge from Advance/Auto Zone and check the compression. That will let you know if its the head gasket for sure.

Like I said, theres and oil seep coming from the back of the head, but im getting fired tomorrow so i wont be fixing it anytime soon