my 95 GXE has one of those starting problems dealing with either the fuel injectors or the fuel pump. I know if the car doesn't start the first couple of times, press the accelerator to the floor and viola, it starts. Only thing is, the smell of gasoline is strong, and white smoke comes out of my exhaust. Well, my question is... will this damage my catalytic converter in any way?

 

Damaging the cat isn't what should be on your mind man. Fix your problem.

 

I don't really want to spend $200 on a new fuel pump or injectors... but if it will do any damage, i will...

PS - not one trusted mechanic i went to figured out my starting problem. I had to find it out on the org...

 

Your starting problem isn't a lack of fuel but perhaps to much. Your getting fuel, you indicate that by the smell of fuel, and once it starts you blow smoke out the tail pipe indicating a flooding condition. So your mixture is to rich.

Have you cleaned your throttle body yet?

Do the hard starts only happen when the car is cold, like overnight or is it constantly giving you hard starts?

Have you checked for codes in the ECU?

A bad or out of spec engine temperature sensor can produce symptoms exactly as you describe. The Haynes manual tells you how to test it and gives specific resistance values over it's operating range. If it's not within spec, change it.

 

yea, my throttle body is cleaned. The hard starts only happen when the engine gets to peak temp, then i park and the engine cools down. It happens more often when the weather is hot while the car is parked.

 

Definately sounds like the engine coolant temp sensor. It's probably reporting that the engine is cold most of the time. Change it, I think it's a cheap part.

 

thanks for the replies... i'll go check out the engine coolant temp sensor..