2001 Excursion 7.3PSD. Let me just start by saying I have a brand new alternator so that is eliminated. I've done the ohm meter thing and checked all the fuses for a draw and couldn't find one. The only odd thing was with nothing on, the meter was showing a 1.5 draw. Through the whole fuse panel it didn't deviate from that. When I get in and turn the key to fire the plugs there is a whirring sound from under the dash. Fuel pump, right? Priming? I don't know I'm assuming. Well this sound changes pitch and the voltage gauge climbs a bit if I leave the key on for more than 10 seconds. Is that normal? I've gone out to start the truck on cold mornings and had barely enough juice to turn the motor once, waited a minute, hit the key again and it spins over like the batteries where brand new. On other occasions I go out and try this sequence with no luck, put the quick charger on for two hours and she's fine for a couple days. Today, for example, she started fine this morning, drove to work, plugged her in, drove my work truck around for about five hours, got back in the Ex, and she had no juice. The problem seems to have no rhyme or reason as it's very inconsistant and it's really PMO! Should I just get two brand new batteries? Does anyone have any other suggestions? Does leaving the key in the ignition have anything to do with battery drainage? The only other thing I can think of is that I was having a problem with the door ajar light which I fixed with WD-40 a few weeks back. Now none of the lights stay on when they're not supposed to so I don't think that has anything to do with it, although the problem did seem to start happening after I did that. I don't know?! Please enlighten me posting GURUS!!! Thanks in advance.

 

that doesnt make sense. if it was your batteries it would always be starting slow but if it was something draining them they wouldnt be dead one minute and like new the next. it might be a relay going bad for a starter or ignition or one of your power connections might be corroded or loose. i dont think it is a fuse problem because i dont think it would work at all if it was. i would look over your power and ignition wires and check the relays involved in your ignition and starter. maybe someone else has had this problem. let us know what fixes it.
-Justin

 

Your draw is 1.5 what? Amps, watts, milliamps?

 

I had a problem with mine the other day. After cranking too long ( I know, I know, you're supposed to wait a while if she doesn't start right away), The truck would not turn over at all. I charged batteries and all of the other usual stuff. Still nothing. I thought I might have a bad relay or selinoid or something. Everything checked out ok. Took the starter off and took the long bolts out, removed thr shaft and looked at the brushes. I had two of the four (across from each other) that had evidently gotten too hot and would not slide. they were not making contact onthe armature(?). Anyway I cleaned them up and got them moving again and now she starts like I put a new starter on her. Thinking back, The starter was slowly getting worse.
Anyway, Have you cranked on it a long time and maybe over heated the starter?
Just a thought.
Craig

 

I agree with muktown, start with cleaning your battery posts and checking cables, then the starter relay would be my first suspect.

 

Muktown is correct. If it was a fuse it would not work until replaced. Most likely it isn't battery connection because you have charged them and probably looked closely at them already. It could be ignition wire going bad because of heat or something rubbing it. I would go with something that always moves like a relay, or key switch.

Good Luck, and let us know.

 

have your batteries tested. does your 01 still ahve the original batteries? if so your batteries will not be long for this world. i have already replaced batteries on a number of 02 and 03 psd. they take alot of juice to run the glow plugs then the starter. the trucks i have replaced the batteries had hard start problems not so much slow crank but just hard starting. the batteries didn't have the guts to properly energize the glowplugs and the heat didn't build up in the cylinders like it should. so maybe the batteries are getting weak and taking too much out of your batteries.

also you need to respond to kwiks question about 1.5 what? is that is amps then you have a draw somewhere. you need to check from the battery and pull fuses one by one and if that doesn't show you where the draw is there are a number of things that run off fusible links that are generally wired to the relay on the passenger side fender.

to check draw at the battery set your meter to the milli amp setting and remove the positive cable and touch you meter to the cable then to the post. anything more than 100 milli amps is too much.

 

I had 1 battery with a bad cell in it and it was intermittent like that about a month ago. Replaced the other last year for slow cranking. Mines a 99 psd. Even a 1.5 amp draw should take days to be noticable on good batteries. Aftermarket alarms are common for creating draws due to lack of inserting diode's in the harness on some vehicles, including my 99. My electric cooler keeps my drinks cold for 2 days sometimes in the truck and it pulls at least a couple of amps.

 

With all due respect, I disagree. Batteries are like fuses. They either work or they don't. They DON'T act dead one minute, and then have "juice" the next.

 

Need to unhook the other battery for this to be accurate, can't check for amp draw on dual batteries with 1 hooked up and read off the other. Should start higher on the meter than milliamp and work your way down too it so as not to blow a fuse in the multimeter, espicially if the draw is 1.5 amps.

 

I'd be happy to ask if Advance Auto will send you the old one....Then you can verify what I had right in front of me working intermittently for weeks. Even still shows a green eye on the top so should still be a good battery, right. Bought new battery and problem went away, obvious to the most casual of observers where the problem was. They will test for free to eliminate the possible problem. I usually start with the free stuff.

 

I disagree the batteries are the problem. A draw would take the batteries down and you would have to charge them. This cycle would continue until draw was found and repaired. He stated the batteries wouldn't start the truck one minute, and then he waited, and they had enough "juice" to start the truck. This would indicate the power is being blocked from starter, partially or fully, either from bad battery connection, bad wires, bad relay, bad key-switch, or a bad connector at the starter. Or like someone else said bad starter brushes, or the starter itself.

Good Luck.

 

With all due respect, I TOTALLY disagree. To address the problem I posted to. Batteries don't act dead one minute, and have enough "juice" to start the truck like they were "brand new," the next. This would especially be true on "cold mornings," as he stated.

Just trying to HELP someone.

 

The "green eye" on the battery is the status of only one cell, the other 5 could be in better shape or worse. I'd rather my batteries not have that feature and not be maintenance free so that I would then occasionally check the status of all the cells in my batteries. I have even pried off the tops to my maintenance free batteries to check and fill up the cells.

 

i have not seen before batteries that are intermittently dead one time then good to go the next. my thinking is that the load on the battery(ie glow plug on time) before cranking the engine is different each time. therefore one time it will crank like new and the other time it won't or barely cranks.

also thanks to you who clarified to unhook the other battery to test the draw i forgot that part.

to know for sure your going to have to check for draw and get a buddy to try to crank the engine while you check for power at the starter. first place to check is the cable coming from the battery, next ingnition power from the switch then if both of those are good make sure power is going through the soleniod to the starter motor.