Sometimes my Ram starts hard....
 

Hey ya'all! Been gone for a while but plan to be here a lot more now... Internet is too big and 'slippery' so i'm trimming my browsing.
So i have a question for you,...

Twice now, my Ram will start harder, with some cranking, sputtering and white smoke............
Last time was 6?? months ago
This time [like yesterday] i noticed a few sputtering starts, then this morn a sputter no start, then after trying a few times with no start, finally she starts but at about 1/2 rpm for a few seconds with white smoke, then all is well.
Lift pump psi is good, Rail psi looks good, Power is good when its running,
I'm thinking a sensor??
Thanks for pondering/sharing! :cheers:

Check your oil to see if it has fuel in it....injector sticking and leaking down perhaps?

Checking as in how full, smell, or testing.....??

I was hoping it would be a 'cheap' sensor.......... :p
This only happened twice in the last 6months or so,.... all other times truck starts just fine... I dont want to over look a affordable part first....

My trans builder said he thought he heard a slight miss at 1200rpms but no codes so he said keep an eye on it..............

Oil smells and looks fine..... i dont have any reason to think that injectors are leaking. Oil level dosnt go up, it drops slightly but i dont need to add between oil changes
Could the tps, fuel rail psi sensor, crank position sensor, etc, cause this problem? sensor gives a false reading...

OH-NO!!! Now my Ram will not start! Cranks but no start. I just did a udc pro tune upload and after this it hardly sputters, returned to stock, no diff. I emailed my tuner and he double checked my files and said all looks good. He is thinking injectors....
Will injectors do this? Oil dosnt appear to have fuel, a few hard starts and now nothing??!! I dont have time to do much this morn, but i will be checking this thread at work.
Lift pump psi is 13#.

Any input is wanted, please.
And maybe a shoulder to cry on :shocked2:

No shoulder??!~!!
Com-on guys

I have my Ram at the shop, so monday ill hopefully find out if it is injectors.
[I did get it to start]

Did you get it fixed? If so, what was wrong?

Hey, thanks for checking;
Yes I did, I replaced my injectors with stage. 05 (60~hp) BBI's
That took care of it, not 1 hard sputtering start since. Pricey but peace of mind knowing 3rd gen injectors can cause problems. ;)

Good to know. Thanks for posting back.

Another thing to look out for is making sure your batteries are fully charged. I hadn't driven mine in two weeks and with the colder weather I cycled the grid heater. I had kind of a stumble start.
I drove the truck about 75 miles and now no issues. I could probably use a trickle charger.
No need to use the grid heater at all with warmer weather approaching. My Sears Platinum AGM's are 4.5 years old now. The guys there tested them and all was well after the drive.
Just need to drive the truck more often.
I know two guys with the BB's. A 1 and the other 1.5. Both owners love them.

Thanks for the update. I'm having the hard start issue with mine and it's finally become bad enough that I had to put it in the shop. They are working on diagnosing it for me. I think it's my injectors as well. The mechanic is a friend of mine so he doesn't mind diagnosing and letting me do the work replacing parts, etc. All in all this has been a good truck and I don't want to get rid of it anytime soon. got 200K miles on the clock

Wanted to let you guys know that I got my truck back from the mechanic and found out what the problem was. The cause of my hard starting was oxidation on the plug prongs for the fuel rail pressure sensor. This was causing the sensor to give inaccurate pressure readings to the computer causing the hard starts. They figured it out pretty quickly because the first thing they did was plug into the OBD2 and check rail pressure with the key on, engine off. Showed 2800 PSI when it should show 0. They started looking at electrical plugs and found the culprit! They cleaned the plug up and put some kind of lubricant on and plugged it back in. They kept it for a couple more days and intermittently cranked it just to make sure that it was good. Fires right up now, no problems! Best $200 bucks I've spent in a while and glad I can trust them because they could have taken me to the cleaners. Anyway, just wanted to post my results in case anyone else has the hard starting it might be an easy fix.[guitar]

Thanks for posting back.