02 Grand Am Hard Start when engine warm.

[ajbtrugreen]

My wife has a 2002 Grand Am GT 3.4

She is leaking some coolant from her intake manifold as the gaskets need to be replaced which I was planning to do when I got the money. Because of this I have to fill the coolant reservoir every day to keep the motor from overheating. A couple weeks ago, she forgot to to fill it on her way to work and it overheated and I had to meet with her. It would not restart. Any ways I went to get a tow dolly and when i came back to get her car it started fine.

The gaskets have been replaced and it doesnt leak coolant anymore. The car is starting perfect with a cold engine and runs perfect when you drive it. You can drive for an hour with no problem. But for some reason, if you shut the car off, it will not restart until the engine is cold. When you try to start it, it cranks and tries to start but wont do anything. Sometimes I can get lucky and it will start, but it tries to choke out and i have to rev the engine a couple times to prevent it from dying.

I dont have the money for a mechanic and hope to be able to fix it myself so any help on what my problem could be would be greatly appreciated.

****Also, dont know if this would be the same problem but the engine will not go over 4000 rpms when in neutral it drops down to 3500 and back and forth between 3500-4000 with the gas pedal on the floor.

[Airjer_]

Originally Posted by ajbtrugreen

****Also, dont know if this would be the same problem but the engine will not go over 4000 rpms when in neutral it drops down to 3500 and back and forth between 3500-4000 with the gas pedal on the floor.

Thats the rev limiter. Its supposed to do that.

Pull the vacuum hose off of the fuel pressure regulator. Start the car let it run for a second or two and then shut it off. If fuel comes out of the nipple the regulator is bad.

[ajbtrugreen]

The fuel pressure regulator could cause the engine to not fire over when hot though?

[3100]

when engine is hot these are some of the things that can create hard starting problems:

ect sensor (reading wrong resistance at certain water temperatures, dirty, shorted or high resistance injectors, coils, icm