I've been having some problems over the past few years with my 1992
Honda Prelude not liking to start as the weather gets colder. In the
Spring/Summer/Early Fall (Vancouver, Canada), I never have problems
with it starting. However as the weather starts to cool down and the
car is sitting (overnight for example) it is a real struggle getting
it to start. It's only Fall now, so I'm worried that by winter I'll
be lucky if I can get it going at all.

In the past 2 years I've had a tune-up, new battery, new fuel filter,
new thermostat & upper radiator hose, and a new oxygen sensor done on
the vehicle. Each time, it seems to be starting better, although I am
inclined to think that maybe the weather was just getting warmer once
they finished the work so it would have started fine anyway. Bottom
line, it's still having the problem now that the cold weather is
starting, so I am still stuck with it.

When I try to start it, it cranks over fine (not slow or anything) and
it usually starts to cough and sputter a little (like it's really
close to starting but it just can't quite make it). At that point,
depending on how much it was sputtering, I get a cloud of WHITE SMOKE
coming from the under hood on the driver side (right below the
windshield). If I leave it for a minute or so and then play around a
little more, it eventually starts up. Once it starts up, it runs
totally fine. In fact, the wierd part, is that once I've got it
started, there's no more problems starting at all. I can shut it off,
start it again, drive around for as long as I need to; it will start
up instantly everytime. It's only when I leave it for a long period
of time (overnight typically) and it's cold that it has big troubles.

Any ideas at all? Specifically the white smoke seems to be a flag
about something. I just don't know what it is.

Thanks,

Ryan Radford
rrradford@yahoo.com

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