Hello there,

I am in Southern Idaho and the temps here have fallen the last week and I have noticed if I don't keep my truck plugged in it won't start at all. Does anyone have suggestions? I am going to do some research and if nothing else fails I will take it to the dealer but other than that it runs great!! Sometimes it cranks for a while to start! Any suggestions?? Thanks

Shane

 

First tell us more:

1. How cold is it outside?
2. What does your fuel pressure read?
3. Does it turn over and not start, or not even turn over?
4. Have you tried turning your boxes off to see if they might be the problem?
5. When was the last time you changed your fuel filter?

 

is your grid heater/fuel heater cycling? if it doesnt, it wont start. the little squiggly light on the instrument cluster.

 

We'll I finally got my truck to start. I plugged it in for about 30 minutes then used my neighbor's car to add more juice and it started. My guess is that it was cold enough that sitting through the night that without plugging it in is was so cold that it couldn't get the fuel to ignite. It got down to 37 degrees and with the wind chill I bet it was around 30 degrees. I don't know what the fuel pressure was?? I change my fuel filter every 3000 miles. This has been a persisiting problem for me.

I know it's now the boxes because I have removed them and the problem still resists.

The truck would turn over but slowly cranks.

The grid heater was cycling but it would take about 45 seconds before it would turn off. I would also cycle it twice before I tried to start it.

Any other ideas??? I am going to try and find the chats about 06's with this problem I did read where some 05's were doing and there was a re-flash??? I am not sure but I am worried about when it gets to 0 degreees. Will my truck start??

Thanks Shane

 

30 degrees is not very cold at all. If I go skiing up north I do not plug it at all and most nights it's 0* outside and she starts right up.(sometimes on 3 cylinders)

Could it be the batteries not good and not having enough juice to turn the motor fast enough???
Can you use your friends car tomorrow morning? The reason I ask is, Before you start the truck by itself conect the car to the truck and try starting the truck. If you start up with no problem then it might be something electrical.

I am having trouble coming up with other ideas. If I think of more I will come back and post. Please keep us up to data on what you find.
Good luck

 

37 deg is parcticly a tropical heat wave compared to what some of the Alaskan and Canook trucks see. at 37 deg I would definatly not bother running the grid heater twice. I never do even if its below 0. They take to much out of the batteries and if the batteries are weak there wont be enough left after 2 cycles to spin the engine fast enough to start. The truck will start well below 37 * with out even letting the grid heater cyle once so twice is definate over kill. The batteries should be good enough to cycle the grid heater twice and still start the truck though any way you look at it. Get your batteries and conections checked. On my last Cummins I put optimas in after the normal batteries pooped out and that was a definate improvment. They are abought the same price any more so when these factory batteries start failing I will definatly be getting anouther set.

Wind chill dont factor into the equasion either. The object has to have heat in it above what the ambiant air temp is such as your body to notice wind chill. Once the truck has cooled off it wont drop below ambieant air temp. Wind wont have any efect on it after it has cooled off. All it will do is cool them off faster if they have been warmed up. They wont drop below ambient air temp.

 

I have started my truck in -32*C(-25*F) not plugged in sitting at my shop for 10hrs cycle grid heater twice and away she goes. If you have slow cranking you have a battery or connection problem. Get the batts checked first and alternator to see if providing enough juice to charge the batts fully. You may also have a short somewhere causing the batts to be drained. If you have a voltage meter check battery voltage before starting truck to see where they are at.should be about 12.6v dc. just some ideas for you.

 

I Just replaced both batteries due to the fact that the inline fuse wire that runs from the passanger side battery to the altenator fried itself along with both batteries.. So I took it in and the dealership didn't have 8 guage so they made one out of 3 peices of 12 guage due to the fact that to replace that guage of wire they would of had to replace the whole factory engine harness. It did throw a code with and my tripledog said charging system. Today in threw a code and the downloader said the code and then it translated the code in to hot batteries??? My buddy has an 04.5 and his starts on a dime no cranking just barely turns over and she's running. ?????? Any help would be great? Thank you guys!!!

Shane

 

you can buy 8 gauge at welding shops. shane, you pm'd me. I'm not blowing you off, just thinking about the problem.

 

Dodgezilla

No problem, I appreciate all your help. I am probably just going to have to make time and take it to the shop. If you can think of anything let me know.

Shane

 

what yr is your truck? doesn't really matter, that fuse link blew for some reason. Replacing the batteries and fuse link without finding what caused it will probably put you right back where you started from. Something drew alot of power to blow that fuse. Once you replace everything get a current meter on it and see what the draw is. also check the new link to see if it is getting hot again.

 

stick a voltmeter to the connections on your grid heaters. do a continuity check first(ohms) ensure that it is actually working, just cause the light is on, doesnt mean the element is any good. do you know how to do this?

if the continuity check is showing a good element, switch to voltage, need a buddy to turn the key to on. you should have at least 12.6 volts dc to the heater.

maybe the heater element is shorting to the case somehow, causing the fusible link to blow, and not actually warming intake air. The light on the dash is controlled by the relay output, so it would indicate when the truck is turning on the heater, not that it is actually on.

if you dont know how to do continuity check, call me
360 649 0781
chris

 

Grey TD - The truck is an 05.

Dodgezilla,

Chris, I will go to a friends tomorrow and we will check all the voltages. PM me and tell me how you'd check it!! I would call but it is kinda late.

 

sent you a pm

 

so what happened? the suspense is killing me.