P0316: Engine Misfire Detected on Startup (First 1000 Revolutions)
What to do
The car will usually drive normally once warm. Mention specifically that the problem happens only on the first start of the day — that detail is what makes it diagnosable.
What this code means
Misfires occurred during the first moments after starting and then stopped. Cold-start-only misfires have their own short list of suspects: fuel that drains back from the rail overnight, injectors that seep, valve deposits that only matter before the engine warms, or oil finding its way past worn guides on a cold engine. Because the fault disappears once running, it is best caught with a scan tool recording from a genuinely cold start rather than diagnosed in a warm workshop.
Likely causes
Start here
- Leaking fuel injector · moderate
- Loss of fuel rail pressure overnight · moderate
- Worn or fouled spark plugs · easy
Less common
- Carbon deposits on intake valves · specialist
- Worn valve stem seals · specialist
- Faulty engine coolant temperature sensor · easy
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
Be the first to write this up
Nothing posted about this yet. Whatever you found is worth writing down — even a dead end saves someone the same afternoon.
What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
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