Its been a lil cold now a days, and I ususally start my car 10~15 before I drive it so it warms up, but for past couple of days...when i start it the engine starts jerking and the rpm goes up and down and then it shuts off. I have to accelerate a little for few seconds till it goes to normal but it still feels a bit sluggish ...any one has experienced such problem .
its a 2k maxima GLE about 70K miles on it.

 

is the check engine light on?

 

Sounds like one of the two things, vacume leak, or cold crank angle sensor may be going bad. Also how cold is cold?

 

yes, it has been freakin cold! mine takes a few seconds longer to start but doesnt do what yours is doing. doesnt sound normal.

 

cold is 13 degres (last friday)

 

Also does this happen when its warm outside?
Another thing it could be , bad gas, foul plugs,possibly vapor lock if you have little gas in the tank....

 

I'm not sure what your cold start problem is but let me make a suggestion on warming up your car. An engine warms up much faster when under load...i.e.- when being driven and not just idling or even just being revved. This is much better for your car and you will end up using less fuel (a cold engine uses more fuel) since the car will warm up much faster......Even on the coldest days I start my car and wait about 30 seconds and drive off and in about 3 minutes my auto climate system is circulating warm air.............

 

i dont want to start a huge argument, but i disagree completely and im sure im not the only one. yes an engine warms up faster under load. BUT heavy load is BAD for a cold engine. so yes is will warm up faster but that is not the same thing as "better for your car"
in cold weather the engine needs to WARM UP to get the oil's viscosity back up so that it gets to all the parts. its a fact of life that you have to run the car without complete lubrication for a little bit. since you can not avoid this, at least let the parts run at idle instead of with a load.
so decide what you want
quicker warm up - drive it right away
better for engine - let it warm up first

 

Wrong.....better for the engine did not mean just better fuel consumption and you gave the answer to yourself in your reply to me "in cold weather the engine needs to WARM UP to get the oil's viscosity back up so that it gets to all the parts" ---- the best way to get the oil warm and circulating thru the oil galleys is to drive off after about a 30 second warm up.....the lubrication will be accomplished more quickly and more thoroughly this way......period

p.s. I never said heavy load as this would certainly be detrimental to the engine.....which would be stomping on the gas pedal from a stop. Just a normal load and not taking the car above 2500rpm or so.

I don't want to hijack this guys thread .... so let's just agree to disagree

 

the best way to warm up the oil is to let the car warm up with as little load (lowest RPMs) as possible. even driving at low RPMs is more load then the idle RPMs. so your engine is working harder with very little lubrication.
this topic can be argued forever. its a matter of opinion i guess and none of us are engineers. letting it warm up before driving just makes more sense to me.

 

Could it be a bit of moisture in the fuel line that has actually frozen overnight thus blocking fuel flow until the car warms up? Is the car parked outside overnight before this occurs and is the ambient temp below about 30F?

 

It's all good....but here is one of the many sites that I have bookmarked Cold starts

that concur with my rational....I'm sure that you can find a few to support your position.....again, whatever makes more sense to you.

 

Yeah, these past couple of weeks been really cold down here where I live, and there has been a couple of times my car acted in the same way as yours, except mine didn't cut off. It acted like it wanted to stall, but I gave it a little gas to keep it from cutting off. I thought it might be moisture in my fuel lines, but I always keep a full tank to avoid fuel line freeze up whenever the outside temperature is ice cold. I cleaned my throttle before winter settled in, so I know it's not that. My car only has 34K miles, so I doubt it could be my plugs. I was thinking maybe my fuel filter needs changing. But, I also heard that changing it is a pain in the a$$. Hmmmm, I wonder, too, what could be the problem. I already had to replace my battery at X-mas.

 

So, back to the original question: unsteady rpms, shut-off... - is your "Check Engine" light on?
Could you stop by a car shop (e.g., Firestone, or whatever is close to you) and pull the codes? (takes 2 minutes)
Do you observe the same problem when you start a hot engine?
It could be a malfunction of some system, or as simple as ice build-up in the fuel line.

 

I disagree totally. Once the oil is out of the pan, you are good to go (<30 sec). I've been driving this way for 20 years and have never had an engine problem with any of my vehicles, and in temperatures so low you could only dream about them. Drive very conservatively until the car warms up and the car will be happy.

As for the OP's problem, its probably moisture in the fuel system. See if you can get some gas line antifreeze.

 

No SES light, and no similar problems with hot start ups. This is a first since it's been cold outside lately. Will probably have to live with it until I actually find out what's causing this. Thanks for your reply, though.