I just picked up a 2004 Excursion with the 6.0 Powerstroke. I had to jump start it twice today for my wife. Both times she turned the ignition to the half way to wait for the glow plugs but didn't start it immediately. She was listening to the radio and adjusting her seat etc for a couple minutes before she tried to turn the ignition all the way to fire the vehicle. And it wouldn't turn over at all. Both times I threw on the jumper cables from my car and tried it maybe 1 minute later and it fired right up.

I took it to Autozone to get something and had them check both batteries, the alternator, and the starter. All passed.

I'm new to the world of diesels. What am I missing?

thanks!

 

I'd look at the battery cables for corrosion, if they are good then it's probably the batteries.

 

Did they check both batteries independently? Def. sounds like a bad battery or battery cable / connection to me. Just FYI,you need to fix this ASAP! Low voltage will kill the FICM (fuel inj. control module) quickly. It's very important to have a healthy battery/charging system on a 6.0L. I wouldn't keep jumping it and running it like that. Good luck!

 

It's either the batteries or the alternator or both. If the Alternator was bad long enough, it could have killed the batteries. You should have gotten a dash warning light, but I didn't with mine. Pull the batteries out and drive them up to Autozone or Advance or O'Reilly's and have them load tested. If they are bad, obviously you need to replace them (don't skimp on quality batteries), but don't stop there and assume your problem is gone. Put the batteries in and then take your Excursion to an auto parts store again and have the charging system checked out. I just caught mine before it was too late... Voltage Regulator was only outputting 12-13 volts when the truck was running.

My alternator was bad.

As WH 6.0 said above, you don't want to be running with low voltage to the FICM or you'll be sorry!

 

It catches up with you faster than you think...

The folks at Autozone sometimes don't know to disconnect both batteries and test them independantly. This is why when I need mine tested, I disconnect everything, THEN go get them to test the battery. The last time I had to do that, they found one battery bad and replaced both without any questions.

 

Thanks everybody!

I'm going to run it over to my mechanic this morning and have him test it out.

What voltage should the batteries be pulling?

 

13.5-14.5 is good.

 

Just to clarify. Is that disconnected? I assume that's per battery as well.

 

12.6-12.8 each engine off, disconnected.

Although a good mechanic should have a load tester.

Josh

 

The driver's side battery showed it was in the last quarter of life. Replaced both batteries. Alternator still tested good.

Hopefully this takes care of the issue.

 

Sounds like you got it. Enjoy your new baby!!

 

Hope that solves the troubles for you. Now you should go out and get some gauges to keep an eye on things. Those batteries could have (and may have already) damaged other things: like ficm and then possibly the injectors. This motor will get expensive fast if you don't keep an eye on it!

 

So far so good. No jump starts since the new batteries. It even sounds like its starting more crisply with the new batteries.

Thanks everybody!

 

Just for future reference, measuring battery voltage won't tell you much. Put a load on it and see what happens is the only way. Bad batteries have 12.5 volts and you put a load on them and they drop to 3 volts. You'd never see that with a multimeter. That's why you pull them to have them tested. If you do leave them in the vehicle, you should have them tested separately disconnect them because the batteries are wired in parallel. Both are used for starting but the passenger side battery is the primary so you want to use the primary (passenger) for jump starting. Hopefully no more of that!