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Very Difficult cold weather starting problems!

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Robert,

Please, don't give up. Yes, understand your frustration, and certainly admire your determination in using it as a daily driver and no nice warm garage.
Jedi is absolutely right, we don't have nearly enough information on the problem. It could be anything from fuel pump to damp ignition leads.

What struck me, was that you are using a shop to diagnose and do the work. No wonder you are feeling the pinch in the wallet.
Find a friendly AH member and over a couple of his favorite beverages methodically work out the problem.

Again Robert, please don't give up,
 
Robert,

It may be that sometimes your shop is using a "shotgun" approach to troubleshooting some of the problems, rather than methodically troubleshooting the causes. It's cheaper for them to just replace things, and then see if it worked, than it is to spend a lot of time trying to diagnose a problem.

As stated before, these are simple cars - although there are some quirks here and there that need to be understood. Try to find, and make friends with some veteran British car club folks, or anyone who understands, and more importantly, likes, old cars (I use the term "veteran" here to mean the person's experience, rather than the cars vintage). Beverages are a great motivator - but remember, the thought of the beverages waiting at the END of the job should be the motivator. My experience is that once the can or bottle is opened, all work shuts down, and then you're out the cost of the beer, with little or no return on investment...

My daily driver is an old Ford Contour (Mondeo) that is not at all glamorous, but like the bunny, just keeps going and going. Right now, I'm approaching 250k miles, and have only had to do basic maintenance. It has the 2L ZTEC engine, and still returns a consistent 35MPG, and uses no oil. Toyota and Honda make great cars, but I think the name alone adds a lot to the price of the used ones. There are a lot of good, reliable cars like mine out there, and they are cheap, so keep your eyes open!

Good luck, and hang in there! Hopefully, you aren't too far away from sorting out some of the basic problems. Jim
 
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