Strange behavior on start-up

[TFucili]

Other than the mysterious intermittent false start/long crank, my truck normally starts and idles soundly. The last couple days after start-up it has had a little skip in it. Not a dead miss, but an off-beat skip that reminds me of an old gasser when the points started to close up(showing my age :-laf ) After 10-20 seconds she smoothes out and sounds normal.



Anybody else have this?

 

[RBell]

Any white smoke out the tail pipe during this time?

 

[TFucili]

Any white smoke out the tail pipe during this time?

No, nothing. The only time I get any smoke on start-up is after a bout of long-crank she'll belch a little black smoke.

 

[RBell]

I've been having problems but my sends out a nice cloud of white smoke for a few seconds and then clears up and runs fine.

 

[Saccowboy]

i just started having this problem, it seems to only do this every now and then. maybe 3 or 4 times on a cold startup or something but as soon as it runs for 5 or 10 minutes its fine. no smoke at all and doesnt seem to be a problem would be nice to see what the hell is up with it though!!

 

[Weatherman]

My 04. 5 has been idling rough when I do a cold start up and has been setting for a while. Don't know what is happening but it seem to have started shortly after the fuel filter was change, When cold I do get a little light blue/gray smoke, after warm up to temperature all is well. Lets all keep posting about this problem, maybe a solution will be published. I have noticed a odor from the exhaust also at about the same time this problem started.

 

[TFucili]

Well, after a few weeks of the intermittent skip, yesterday morning I started the truck in the 65 degree garage and it had a dead miss and instantly filled the garage with blue smoke quicker than I could get the thing in reverese and get the tailpipe out the garage door. My wife thought the house was on fire :-laf IT sat there and chuffed for about 15-20 seconds then picked up the dud and ran fine all day. Later, I drained the water separator to see if there was a condensation problem, but it came out spotless. I guess I'll stop by the dealer today and see if I can talk to one of the techs.



What's the likelihood they will find something if it's not acting up at that moment?

 

[OHale]

It sounds a lot like a problem I had except I had white smoke, not blue. It would typically happen the next morning after a long, easy highway run. One morning it threw a code: injector 1 mis-fire. Did you get a check engine light?



I ran a high dose of injector cleaner through next tank of fuel and it hasn't happened again. I wonder if you have a gunked-up injector.



Someone on another thread said their mechanic would fill the fuel filter canister with Stanadyne to clean the injectors. I have never tried that and don't know if it's a good idea but it sounded interesting to me.



Your dealership can hook up a diagnostic tool and possible diagnose a clogged or bad injector. If it were me I would start at the dealership. Just a guess...

 

[TFucili]

It sounds a lot like a problem I had except I had white smoke, not blue. It would typically happen the next morning after a long, easy highway run. One morning it threw a code: injector 1 mis-fire. Did you get a check engine light?



I ran a high dose of injector cleaner through next tank of fuel and it hasn't happened again. I wonder if you have a gunked-up injector.



Someone on another thread said their mechanic would fill the fuel filter canister with Stanadyne to clean the injectors. I have never tried that and don't know if it's a good idea but it sounded interesting to me.



Your dealership can hook up a diagnostic tool and possible diagnose a clogged or bad injector. If it were me I would start at the dealership. Just a guess...

No, I got no check engine light. I took a trip to the dealer this morning hoping I could spend a couple minutes bending one of the diesel tech's ears, but couldn't get past the "guards" at the service counter. I explained my issue and started to get the old "oh that's normal" routine, then when they saw I didn't have a sense of humor about that I got an appointment to at least get it looked at. Even if they don't do anything I'll at least have it documented. These guys have always been very good, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt... for now.

 

[Weatherman]

What generation of truck and model are you driving

 

[OHale]

Well, I know how that is. Taking the diplomatic approach like you are is the best way. Making smoke and running rough is definitely not normal, and they don't all do it.



My truck did this about a half dozen times until I ran the injector cleaner. It only threw a code once when it was a really bad start, very rough idle and the white smoke. There may not be a code stored but I believe they can still use a remote (something like a laptop) to isolate each injector and check its performance. I have read of other members having this done.



I hope this gets taken care of for you and wish you the best of luck with it!

 

[TFucili]

What generation of truck and model are you driving

It's an '05 3500. I created a sig. , but it doesn't show up.