My 89 760 turbo wagon is very hard to start when it is cold. The car has 170K miles and this problem has developed slowly over time but is now constant.

Here is what it does if the ambient temperature is under 70 degrees....
When you try to start the car it will crank over fine but will not "catch" and run at all. If you try to start the car 10-20 times in a row (building engine temp?) then the car may start and run ok after an intial (10 sec.) rought idle (flooded?). The only way to be sure to get the car started when it is cold is to spray starter fluid in the throttle body, hold the gas pedal all the way to the floor, and crank the engine. If you use this technique it will catch, fire, run rough for a few seconds then start running fine (no stall or rough idle).

If the ambient temperature is over 70 degress, or the car has been run at all during the day it starts and runs fine. (Unless it if really cold outside <30 and you let the car sit for 4-6 hours).

I initially thought it might be the fuel relay but that doesn't make sense if it always starts and runs fine when the car is warm. Also, my starter fluid trick probably wouldn't work either.

I've read some of the other postings and think it might be the AIC (?) or some type of temperature controled sensor.

Any suggestions or ideas would be welcomed. I dread the cost / time of randomly replacing parts until I find the problem.

Othe geneal car info is that it just passed CA smog (perfect), had a tune up (plugs, wires, cap, and rotor), and an oil change. It does "surge / hunt" when ideling sometimes but that will go away if I run a bottle of fuel injector cleaner through it. The main fuel pump is starting to make a high pitched whining noise but that has been true much longer then this problem has exsisted.