1990 XLT, 5.8, E4OD, 140K well maintained miles.

Hey all, long time no see. But my Bronco has been trouble-free for years now! However, this morning it was fifteen below. I wanted to take my dog out to play in the snow and to play in the snow with the Bronco. However, no dang start. It has started at these temps in the past before with no issues. The battery seems to be OK, it turns over and I also put a charger on it just in case.

I was driving the truck yesterday with no problems, and then this morning it will not start. Yesterday, after not having driven the truck for a few days and having left something plugged into the DC outlet and turned on, the battery ran down a bit and I had to use my handy Krank and Karry, but no biggie. Like I said, today it turned over but would not start.

I can hear the fuel pump turn on when I turn the key. The relay is new. I also swapped coils since I had one laying around, just to check. No change. The truck turns over and sounds like it wants to catch, but doesn't. It sorta sounds like a timing chain, but I'm pretty sure that it's not since the chain and gears were replaced a couple of years ago and it seems to have compression and doesn't crank super fast. Besides, it ran fine yesterday. I have not yet checked for spark but I have an inline tester that I can throw on there and have someone see if it lights up while I crank it. It's too cold to be laying on the ground to hook up my remote starter!

This has actually happened before, when it wasn't even cold. It turned over but would not catch. I was out somewhere and had to have it towed to the shop, where they replaced the battery and all was well. They said that they found nothing wrong with it except the battery. But the battery was cranking! I did not understand it then and I don't understand it now. So this is the battery that they put in at the time. It's about two and ahlf years into a 72 month warranty. I wanted the best battery that they had. It's an Interstate 950. I never liked Interstate batteries actually, and I wanted a Quantum deep cycle but they don't fit the stock battery hold downs.

The whole charging system is upgraded. I have a 160 amp alternator and a high torque mini starter. The battery cables are one piece, heavy duty.

Can this be caused by the battery somehow, even though it cranks? That seems to be what happened last time, even though it makes no sense. And it was not even cold last time - and the truck has started fine at temps as low as 20 below before.

Oh yeah my coolant is good and should not be frozen, and the gas has the antifreeze stuff in it. The truck is in a good state of tune and has no ongoing issues, other than this new one. I'd really like to get it running today but it's pretty dang cold to be outside troubleshooting much but the easy stuff.

PS - to add insult to injury, my brother's old $500 Dodge Dynasty started right up. So you really gotta help me out here!

 

When you turn the key and hear the fuel pump kick and pump up, I would find the shrader valve on the fuel rail, you can push it in and make sure the fuel is getting to the injectors.
You should also check for spark.

 

I verified spark after the distro cap and fuel pressure at the fuel rail after activating the pump. I would have done this earlier but it was dang cold, it's still cold but bearable at 3 degrees above. So now I am stumped. I again attached my Jump N Carry, it's an expensive heavy duty unit, not one of those cheapos with the air compressor and light etc. and it does 950/1700 so I had the motor spinning fine. It just won't catch. It sounds like a motor with timing that is off.

The thing is that it did this once before, about 2 1/2 years ago, when it was not cold at all and I had just driven it to the store. I was having no problems at all with the truck, but when I came out of the store it did exactly what it is doing now. It cranked fine but would not catch, and again sounded like a motor with the timing being off and won't fire. I have roadside assistance and a tow truck came out and the guy attached the built in jumper cables from the big diesel and we spun the heck out of the motor but it still would not fire. He towed it to the shop and they found nothing wrong but said the battery was bad and replaced it and I never had any more issues until today. Very frustrating.

Can a battery that turns the truck over still cause it not to start? I know it makes no sense but I'm stumped, and that's all that was done last time. However, I do recall that before the battery was replaced, if it was very cold out and the truck did not immediately fire when I tried to start it, it would do sort of what is happening now and I would have to wait a couple of minutes and then crank the heck out of it. But it always started after that, and this rarely happened and never happened again after the new battery was installed.

WTF??? I am bummed because it's the weekend and we got lots of snow and I have no wheels.

 

pull the codes, could be the TPS not telling the injectors to fire, mine did sorta the same thing before i replaced the TPS. it would start, run crappy for a min, then stall, and then it would crank over and flood. when it floods you can hold the accelerator all the way to the floor and crank it, (this cuts off the fuel, so the cylinders get dried out)
but i would pull codes see what the truck can tell ya....good luck, and keep warm

 

have you hooked up a fuel pressure guage to truely verify proper fuel pressure? just because fuel comes out of the service port on the rail, does not mean that it has enough start-up pressure...being that it was 15 below, maybe there is water your fuel that may have frozen in the line, restricting flow...just a thought...

 

I don't have anything to pull codes with. Also I did consider the fuel pressure issue, I don't think that the fuel would freeze though because I had the fuel antifreeze/drier stuff in it, I keep that in my fuel always during the winter. Also my bro's car started and it sat out all night too and I doubt that he put anything at all in the gas.

The thing that gets me wondering is that it did this once before when it was not cold at all, and replacing the battery fixed it. It would turn over fine but not start and a new battery fixed it. So I am really confused here.

Hopefully it will be warmer tomorrow and perhaps it will start. I have a gut feeling that replacing the battery will fix it for some reason, even though it makes no sense.

Can it be that the battery works to crank the motor but does not supply enough voltage to give a hot enough spark? I put a voltage tester on the battery and it seems to be above 12 volts. And when I had the battery charger on it and it was charging, I got some funny fluctuations in the meter. I thought that if it spins the motor and it's got gas and spark that it should start, but I've heard otherwise sometimes for newer vehicles like my Bronco that have computers.

 

boy, that is puzzling...i really doubt that a battery will fix your concern, especially since it turns the starter/engine over good...are you sure it's not just flooded? anything's possible...you mentioned that the engine turns over like an engine with bad timing...are you saying that it does "pop" every so often? if so, remove your distributer cap to verify that the rotor turns while cranking...i have seen distributer gears get apple-cored by the cam gear (it actually looks like someone took a bite out of it)...also, on a friend of mine's F150, his oil pump locked-up, causing the roll-pin in the distributer gear to shear, disconnecting it from the distributer shaft...

 

When I say that it sounds like a motor with the timimg off, what I mean is that it sounds like it almost wants to catch but just doesn't quite do it. Tomorrow I'll check the dist cap and rotor, perhaps one of them cracked in the cold weather. It certainly is puzzling because it ran perfectly yesterday. and it's also puzzling because this happened once before, when it was warm out and a trusted shop found nothing wrong, actually it fired right up for them when they put the new battery in. But if I can't find anything wrong tomorrow then it's gonna have to get towed to the shop on Monday. Bummer.

 

yeah, very discouraging... hope you find the prob...g'luck...

 

I would have never guessed a bad battery would make mine run horribly like the timing chain jumped. It ran fine one day and did not start and hour later. Jumped it with my RoadBot and when it started it ran TERRIBLY and I was afraid the timing chain jumped. Mine barely ran at 90 degrees so feel sure it would do nothing at around zero. I charged the battery overnight, the charger showed it was charging properly then I took it to get tested. It tested only 15 CCA. New battery started it, ran better but not good, after a day or so the computer learned everything again and it runs great again. Codes are good. I'm happy it was that simple.

 

If you feel the the "dizzy/cap/rotor/wires" has failed in some way, you may have a chance of seeing a arcing spark at the cracked/damaged area. Just try cranking it over in a darkened area......and even listen for the "snap" of the high voltage........it has worked for me in the past.

 

My gut is telling me that it's the battery. I can't explain it, but I suppose that if the battery shorts out inside or something it can still turn the motor over but cause other issues. And it happened in the past. I think that Interstate batteries suck but mine has almost five years left on the warranty so I won't have to pay much for the prorate charge.

I was thinking of getting a deep cycle battery. I hear that they are better. What's the deal with those? Do I need any special wiring or anything? The alt, starter, and cables are already upgraded over stock.

 

I'm not cold knowledgable. It gets below 25 degrees about two or three days a year here in East Texas. The local Insterstate company store keeps trying to sell me on the battery that looks like a six pack. BTW the failed battery was made by Johnson Controls and came with my Bronco. When I finally learned the closest dealer, Pep Boys, was over an hour away I went to Wally World because of replacement/warranty availability about anywhere and anytime. After installalation I saw the fine print and Johnson Controls makes Wally World batteries also so I did not change manufacturers, much to my <!--StartFragment -->chagrin.

 

I cant think of any reason that the battery would cause a no-start issue. before you bring it to the shop, pull the codes, its very easy and is explained in detail here http://fordfuelinjection.com/?p=13

 

It might be your ignition module.

My Bronco died while I was driving down the road. No warning, just stopped running. It turned over just fine, lots of fuel pressure, but just wouldn't start. I replaced the module and never had another problem.

My 87 Ranger also had the ignition module die, but this one died slowly. Every once in a while, it just wouldn't start. Same thing, cranked fine, lots of fuel, but no spark. Until the last time, if you let it sit for about 1/2 an hour to an hour, it would start again like nothing had happened. After replacing the module, I never had the problem again.

- Tim