Cold starts, and a few questions...

[SlowToady]

1) My car is a bit tempermental in cold weather, and lately I've noticed that with the cold weather, when I start my baby up, it will stumble and be very rough unless I let it sit and run for 1 or 2 minutes. Even if you give it just a little gas it starts stumbling. Is thre a cold start sensor or something of that nature on these cars that is malfunctioning and causing a lean mixture until it gets a bit warmer? I tried searching through the factory workshop manuals for "cold start" but didn't get anything.

2) My fans do not kick on until the temp gauge hits the 3/4 mark, which scares the hell out of me every time and gets me super paranoid; sometimes it gets rather close to the bottom of the red. I'm thinking that perhaps the radiator temp. switch has up and packed its bags on me? It's an ex-track car, so perhaps the PO changed certain things in the cooling system? Not really sure though, or what to look for. ATM, I can't contact him because of email issues. Any ideas?

3) At work the other day I threw my car on the lift to try and figure out what is making this noise that's been pissing me off, and I discovered that if I grabbed the front wheel (either one) at the top and bottom, you could tilt them about 1-2mm. This is due to worn ball joints in the control arm, correct? Should the tie rods be replaced "while I'm in there"? I also noticed some oil dripping down the piston on my front struts, which leads me to believe they gone to a better place. As far as I know, they are OEM (the rears are KONI reds).

4) Some dick head yanked the hell out of my passenger door handle and ripped in off basically. My brother suggested I might be able to get away with fiberglassing it in place (on the back of the door panel). Any thoughts on that? Should I just not be cheap and buy a new/used one?

5) My baby is going to hibernate for the winter, and I've heard differing opinions on how to properly store a car. Some people say store it without any fluids in it. Other people said to store it and start it up every other day or so and just run it for a few minutes. Some people said that's a no-no due to hot/cold expansion. Still other people said to fill the engine with as much oil as possible to prevent corrosion (and DON'T start it, lol). So...how the hell do I store this thing?:-P

Ahhhhh.....I think that is it for now.

/*edit*/

I lied, I have one more question.

Does anyone know where to get those kickass BBS rims from the 80s? Man, I SO want a set.

[AFJuvat]

1. AFM had a air temp sensor and an idle stabilizer valve - make sure both are functioning properly.

2. Around thed 3\4 mark is NORMAL. you can put a lower temp thermo-fan switch and get them to kick on at about the 1/2 mark.

3. not tie rods - wheel bearings. tie rods are side to side, wheel bearings are top and bottom.

4. but a new one, if you are pre 96, they are about $70 You can change your lock over so the keys match.

5. Disconnect the battery, make sure all the fluids are good and fresh, fuel stabilizer in the tank. Start it once a week and let it get warm.

AFJuvat

[SlowToady]

AF's on the ball! Talk about responce time.

So my z-axis wheel movement is the wheel bearings, and not the control arms? Kinda glad I don't have to rebuild those. How much movement should there be side-to-side when the car is lifted off the ground? I can't recall if there was any or not. I'm garaging the 944 when snow hits (in IL), which is when I planned to start doing some mods/what ever needs fixed. Can I wait another month or so on the wheel bearings, or would you recommend doing them right away?

It was the inside of the door handle/arm rest that got yanked on, sorry for the confusion. Would fiberglassing the back work out?

Heh, I found those BBS rims (I want them so bad, coolest design ever!) in the classifieds right after I posted this. Too bad my car budget is expired for a little bit Oh well, cookies rule, anyway.

Thanks AF!