As for the light, it may very well be a problem with your thermostat sticking open. The thermostat is supposed to stay shut to allow the engine to reach proper operating temperature....then open as necessary to keep the temperature even.
You have to find out the code that is making your Check Engine light come on.
This happened to me recently with my Land Rover. The light came on and the code indicated that the engine was too cold for too long - not warming up properly.
Installed a new thermostat and it cleared right up!
Good luck to you.Why does my car not (or hard to) start in Cold (%26lt;33F) ?The starter maybe? I know when I have had starters go out, the car was always hard to start first.
And there is a flywheel - the teeth on the starter- that can go out, too.Why does my car not (or hard to) start in Cold (%26lt;33F) ?Some cars have problems with starting in cold weather not usually in that range though I am talking about in the negatives up in North Dakota and the likes where they have to plug their cars up to keep the block warm so it will start. If your Check Engine light is on I would most certainly have it checked to see what code comes on your lucky you own a 96 because that is the first year OBD 2 was used so take it to Advanced Auto they will check for free. If the Check Engine light has nothing to do with the starting issue than I would recommend having the starter checked and replaced if necessary because that if certainly probable.Why does my car not (or hard to) start in Cold (%26lt;33F) ?Not an ecm problem,but one of the sensors feeding it is faulty.Best guess without code reading it would be the intake air temperature sensor,or the coolant temperature sensor.Why does my car not (or hard to) start in Cold (%26lt;33F) ?the battery loses a lot of power when it gets cold. Just because you have a new battery doesn't mean it's a good battery. I did that with my honda and got a Walmart battery... big mistake. It was a piece of crap. You want to get the biggest battery that will fit your car.
Other than that, it could be a lot of things, but I don't have a lot of time now and your info is kinda limited:
Some hondas had a problem with the main relay being sensitive to temperature changes. I fixed mine (took the main relay out and re-soldered the solder joints and I never had problems with it again) but that problem was more common with hot temperatures.
In your case it could be a number of things.
Main relay not activating fuel pump,
bad gas (water/ice in the gas) you can buy a fuel additive for this and it takes care of the problem.
i'm sure there are other things that could cause these symptoms, but I assume you've already done a tune-up with good quality parts. Your car deserves that much.
http://www.hondacarforum.com/acura/2728-
