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Posted by Troll
- September 26, 2013, 15:59:14 PMI had a customer's car in for an intermittent no crank. Tried it several times, no problem. load tested the battery, passed with flying colors. I parked the car outside, and when the customer came for it, no crank...Took the load tester outside, and the battery read 0 volts, then, suddenly, 13.something. load tested again, it was fine, went to start the car, and it went to 0 again...cracked cell connector, sometimes made contact, sometimes, not.....batteries be strange animals....
Posted by hawkfan
- September 26, 2013, 15:45:29 PMThe battery went dead after about 4 attempts of cranking it. After it sat, I tried several attempts and the battery would die. Finally after about an hour of sitting, it started right up. I should have load tested the old battery but I was 180 miles from home.
Posted by Mak
- September 26, 2013, 08:25:43 AMI hazard the guess that one of the internal battery sections was stuffed such that it worked sometimes and sometimes not - happened to me once ....
Mak
Posted by greenbarn
- September 25, 2013, 20:16:52 PMQuote from: hawkfan on September 24, 2013, 18:50:40 PMLike Chief said - low battery voltage does not feed an ECM correctly and they can do bad stuff.Yes, I could hear the pump run. I thought at one time I flooded it as I could smell a slight odor of gas.
By default, if you're not getting spark, or enough spark, but you're getting fuel, then it is by definition flooding the cylinders, and you will smell fuel. The various sensors also can flake out, causing it to dump too much fuel, again flooding it and not starting.
My wife has a 2000 Windstar, and in the last 4 years it has failed to start 3 times. It only does it in hot weather, like August, and only when you drive it somewhere, get it good and hot, and leave it sit for less than 5 minutes or so. Heat builds up under the hood (I'm presuming) and one of the sensors goes bonkers (or the ECM itself) and then it won't start until it cools off for about 5 minutes or 10, then all is OK. Guess what, everything tests good back at the shop.
Posted by hawkfan
- September 25, 2013, 19:11:55 PMThanks Chief!
Posted by chief
- September 25, 2013, 11:43:00 AMYeah, I've had similar incidents where it was, indeed, a weak battery. Could be you had both... weak battery and too much fuel. Since you replaced the battery, if it were a connection problem you likely fixed that too.
Posted by hawkfan
- September 24, 2013, 18:50:40 PMYes, I could hear the pump run. I thought at one time I flooded it as I could smell a slight odor of gas.
Posted by Troll
- September 24, 2013, 18:20:21 PMDid you hear the fuel pump run when you tried to start it, and it wouldn't?
Posted by hawkfan
- September 24, 2013, 18:02:02 PMI was driving through some scenic roads through the Iowa country side when I stopped at a state park for a break. After about 15 mnutes I got back on my drifter and it wouldnt start. It would crank but not fire. After several attempts I wore the battery down. After letting it sit for about an hour as I searched for the source of the problem I took one more shot at starting it and it fired up. As the battery is probably 4 years old I drove into town and replaced it. Since then, I havent had a starting issue. Could it be that the old battery wasnt putting out enough amps to put a good spark in the cylinders? I'm a bit confused by it all.