I went to leave work today and my car would not start. Seems like the starter turns over very slow. Just wondering if anyone has any tips to get me on the right track. It was 26 degrees here with about a 15-20 mph northern wind. I do not have the option of plugging it in at work. I am letting it sit outside tonight with a battery charger on it. I want to make sure that the battery is fully charged and see if it makes a diff on a cold start. I was thinking either the battery is weak or the alternator may not be putting out enough. I have a spare glow plug relay and another alternator to try out. Just looking for any input.

Injectors and glow plugs are new, as well as full synthetic oil in every cavity. I need this thing to start in the cold. I have a Dodge diesel truck, but prefer not to drive it every day. Not the most economical truck out there, but it sure is fun to drive, with 462hp and 969 ft of torque. My wife says her Subaru is totally out of the question.

Thanks in advance.
Terry

 

If this behavior just started with the onset of cold weather weak battery is the most likely culprit. However, you also need to consider how far you drive to work. If you live in a small town and only take short trips (less than 1/2 hour each way) then you aren't charging your battery enough through driving and should consider putting it on a charger overnight at least once month and perhaps every couple weeks.

If the car has been doing this for awhile, you may want to test the grounds and make sure you have good connections.

 

Thanks, I drive about 1/2 hour to work and at highway speeds this car sounds like the pistons are swapping holes. I too was thinking it was a weak battery condition. That is why I left it outside with the charger on. As of this post it is still outside with the charger on. Later in the day I will test to see if this is the case. Just wanted some tips and opinions to check before the weather turns cold.

 

You didn't mention how old the battery is. My recollection from my prior MB diesels is that they definitely need a robust fully charged battery. Once, on Christmas eve, my 1978 300D battery was dead. Two gas powered cars were pressed into service to get me started. My diesel deaded both cars. A tow truck arrived and we just sat for 15 minutes in his cab with the jumper cables connected with hisengine on high revs. After that the car finally started. I replaced the two year old battery and never had a problem after that.
The charger may help in the short term but a newbattery may be in your future.

 

The battery is less than a year old. I found when I tool the battery out the terminals were very corroded. Seems to start OK now, but it hasn't been that cold since thursday. Started OK this morning, but once it started to fire I kept on the starter until it was fully running.

 

word, thats what my manual says

 

for future reffrence your battery is about 600amp hours your charger may be only 5 amp hours so it would take 120 houss to charge fully !

 

Well it happened again. 13 degrees and car wont spin over fast enough to start. I am going to replace the battery and the cables this weekend. I got a 2 gauge positive cable and a 4 gauge neg. Looks like the existing cables are still the original. The only thing left would be the starter itself. It spun over very quick with a jump. The battery was new in Jan of this year, but I know it could still be bad.