anyway, ACTION congrats for the 1000+ posts.


73strokin, yes it could be the batts, first check them with a load test separately, ok?

 

Odds are high its the problem.

Took us awhile but back on topic

Bill

 

I had them load tested separately in July (because of starting problems - turned out to be a bad starter) and he said they were at 85% He said that isn't bad, but they aren't at their peak either. But all things considered, that was then and this is now.

But like I said earlier, I was planning on replacing them anyway because of their age. The batteries are Interstates with 875 CCA. One business mentioned to me that Interstate makes a battery with 1000 CCA. Does anyone know about this and if it fits our trucks without modifying the battery tray/holddown?

 

ACTION 4478-

Are you running a TS chip in your computer? It might be malfunctioning due to the cold weather. I hear that some laptops will do that even without the TS..

 

73 strokin-

You need 2 tests to confirm the state of your batteries- The load test will check the performance of your batteries under a load, but you also need a hydrometer test that measures the specific gravity of the electrolyte in each cell.

Also remember that wet cell batteries can do a couple of funny things that are not really funny- One is that they can sulfate, which covers the plates with a gray powdery looking stuff and that is a sign of a battery that has failed or is not operating at full capacity. The other is stratification-the electrolyte in your battery is made of acid and water. they can separate and the heavier acid goes to the bottom and the water stays on the top. Hard charging a battery will boil the battery and mix the two a little, but repeated hard charging will ruin the battery. If the person testing your batteries or selling batteries does not know what sulfation and stratification are, find someone else to deal with.

Battery manufacturers all like to play the numbers game, so you can't always compare apples to apples, but look for the BCI ratings of the battery. If you have a battery that is rated in CCA, it is not a deep cycle battery, it is a starting battery. If you have a battery that is rated in Amp Hours (AH) it is a deep cycle battery. The deep cycle battery is the only way to go IMO. It will recover much better if you do accidentally run it all the way down (cycle it deeply), and if you ever have a starting problem like running out of fuel and trying to turn the engine over for a while, deep cycle is what you want.

Starting batteries give you higher peak power, but they fade quickly. Deep cycle batteries give you a little less power, but they will still be pushing amps long after the starting battery is dead. They will also stand up to repeated running down and charging better than a starting battery. Deep cycle is more expensive for a reason.

Some people won't agree with me on this, but I have sold thousands of batteries and done a good bit of research on this, you should do your own research too.

 

Since the last posts in this thread I have replaced the batteries and have still encountered the problem with my chip. But unlike my original diagnosis (it was due to cold weather) I have come to a different conclusion. It seems to me that the truck reverts back to stock programming if it takes several tries to start it. Because the other Saturday it was about -10 outside and I just wanted to see if I could get it to start without plugging it in. Well after several tries I got it to fire and keep running. And it was on stock programming again.

But the more I think about the other occurences, it was situations like this where it took several cycles of the key to start it. I'm not yet sure how many cycles, 2, 3, or 4? And then for the chip to work again I'm not sure if it takes a certain number of starts to make it work or if it's a certain number of miles that have to be driven? Because usually the next time or two that I start it after it sits a while everything will work fine. So now I figure the reason why I wouldn't notice this in summer is because it usually only takes one shot to start it. So does any of this make any sense?