Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) REAL cold, 1st time truck DIDNT start...

[jtisdale]

I got done with work Wed. morning @ 7am. I drove home (5 blocks) and parked it. I went to work at 10:15 last night and it was about -1°. Drove 5 blocks back to work (Iknow, I should have run it longer and usually I do, but time was an issue). This morning @ 7am I go to start it, and it cranked for a little bit and fired, but no go. I cycle the grids again, and this time it barely cranked (when I noticed my radio clock went blank I stopped cranking). Had to get jumped by a powerstroke (a really good friend of mine).

I checked my batteries with a meter, and at idle it shows 14. 5vdc at each battery. I have straight #2 in with FPPF polar power additive. (Fuel is not gelling. ) I also have the TSB that cuts the fuel back during cold weather starting.



Does any body have any ideas why it didnt start? My only guess is the grids ran the night before and all the way to work, and this morning when I tried to start it, so the batteries were really low from cycling the grids for so long and they were pretty well drained.

Maybe its time for new batteries??

 

[jgillott]

Don't feel too bad. The same thing happened to a friend of mine at work here on Tuesday. He has a '98 Ford 7. 3L. He lives only a few miles from work. He didn't have his truck plugged in over night, and had to cycle the glow plugs several times for his morning start. His drive to work was a little less than five minutes which we think just wasn't enough time to recharge the batteries from the drain. I ended up giving him a jump to get home. He told me today that he went ahead and replaced his batteries yesterday. I believe they were the originals. I would think that your batteries are fine. You'll probably just need to let yours run longer to insure proper charging.



Justin

 

[Lsfarm]

Short cycling

If you often make that short five block trip, it isn't enough to recharge your batteries. After a really cold start, with grid heater cycling, it probably takw several miles of driving during the day to recharge the batteries. At night with lights on, grid heater cycling on and off while the engine is cold then very little current is getting to the batteries to recharge them.



I would just put a charger on the batteries for several hours and see if all is well.



Hope this helps Greg L. The Noise Nazi

 

[ntillm01]

Each vehicle is different, of course, but I remember seeing some chart that showed the numbers. For every crank and start, it takes about 20 minutes of above-idle operation to recharge the vehicles battery(s) back to 100% charge. This is the case with normal cars, and I expect a little more drive time is needed for these trucks because of the grid/fuel heaters. I'd vote for hooking a charger up overnight (or over-day in your case) to bring them back up strong.

Since they were low enough on charge to affect your cranking, I'll bet the grids weren't getting as hot as they should, further compounding the cold-start problem.