Down on power when cold

[rdougan]

My 2001 S seems to be always down on power when it is cold. And by down on power, I mean, if I try to "floor it", she barely moves. After 3-5 minutes of normal driving, it is fine.

I recently replaced the AOS. Is there anything else that could cause this?

Thanks

[Overdrive]

Not too sure about causes, but you definitely shouldn't be flooring it when the car's not warm yet. I think it's a bit typical of the cars by design though. Car's cold, shifter's kinda sloppy, but it all comes together in a few minutes.

I'm pretty sure the owner's manual says something along the lines of "not revving over 4,000rpms or going full throttle" until the engine comes up to temperature.

Now are you saying it's so bad that even when trying to drive it normally you can't get it moving decently? Or is it only if you try to get on it while it's still cold?

[Topless]

To "floor it" when the engine is still cold is extremely hard on every engine while parts are expanding at different rates and oil is still running thick and slow... Especially a Porsche engine with 9qts of oil to get warmed up. The DME also runs a different tuning map during warm up which probably keeps the motor down on power to help protect your engine er... wallet.

Give it a few minutes. When the temp gauge says 180 it's time to play.

[rdougan]

Okay. I guess that makes sense. Pretty cool that the car actually knows it is cold and cuts down on available power.

Thanks!

[Overdrive]

I remember the BMW M3, I believe this is back in E36 period, was tuned so that until the engine reached its optimum operating temperature, the engine would not rev past 3000 rpms to prevent impatient and/or overzealous owners from causing damage to the engine.

Considering how problematic our cars can be without doing anything wrong, I'd definitely say make sure you let the car get warm before you play. Keeping the RPMs above 3,000 (but under 4,000) will certainly get you to that point within 5-10 minutes depending on how much of that time is spent in motion.

[thstone]

If the engine is seriously down on power when cold, then it might be MAF or a temp sensor (engine or outside air) issue.