I have a 2004 Volvo S60 T5 that his very hard to start in cold weather. When I turn the key, it turns over, but won't catch. If I hold the key over for about 3 or 4 minutes, it eventually catches and starts running. Once running, it runs perfectly. And once it's warm, you can turn it off and restart it with 0 problems.

I've spent $1200 so far on this problem and three different garages can't figure it out and fix it. It seems that when cold, the car floods the cylinders immediately. It's then me cranking through this flooded state to get it started, the gas burns out, then runs fine. Two out of three mechanics got some readings that compression seems to be low in certain cylinders. Perhaps until oil gets up on the cylinder walls, compression is low, then later when it warms up a bit, compression is fine.

One mechanic had my car in the cold over the weekend with the temp sensor unplugged and hose disconnected (whatever the hose is that passes over the spark plugs). when he turned the key, it started immediately. He turned it off, plugged the sensor in, hooked up the hose and tried to start again with no luck. Weird. This behavior has never been duplicated.

One other thing. The fan on the car runs continuously from startup and the entire time the car is on. I live in Pennsylvania and it's in the 20's here.

Can anyone give me any ideas? Thanks a million!