Somewhat new to this diesel thing, purchased my Ex this past summer, so I'm still learning. Anyway, with winter fully upon us I have been plugging my truck in overnight when I plan to drive it. It has been starting fine, even below zero deg.

We had some pretty serious snow and drifting over the holiday weekend, since I have a 400 yard drive way, no plow and a 2WD Ex I decided it was best to park it at the end of the driveway so I could get out. Needless to say I do not think 400yds of extension cords to plug in my truck is a good idea. I went out to start the truck yesterday morning, about 15 deg, and did not like what it did. I let the glow plugs cycle and hit it, took a little longer to start then normal, but not to bad, romped twice and died. It did this two more time before it finally stayed running, though it did romp for about 15 seconds.

Is something wrong or is this normal cold weather starting after not being plugged in? I know plugging it in seems to be the cure, but is there anything else I can do to ease the cold weather starting drama when I can not plug in?

My truck has 170k miles on it, running dino oil, purchased from the original owner who was very meticulous in the vehicle's care, he had no receipts for or did not mention replacing glow plugs or the GPR.

 

Romps are more of a personality for some trucks. It's the nature of some beasts, but can be greatly reduced or eliminated by switching to a 5w40 synthetic oil. 15 seconds of romp isn't to bad. Either way while it's annoying, it isn't going to hurt anything if you leave it.

Was it smoking like a freight train when first started, or just a small amount? This is an indication of the health of your glow plug system.

 

It was dark, I did not see any excessive smoke. Got out of the truck as soon as it stayed running to feed the horses - no visible smoke. I will pay a little more attention this AM and see if it smokes.

 

One thing to note, the excursions have glow plug control modules (GPCM). That said, if you have a bad glow plug, the system is smart enough to through a CEL error on which one is bad. I have a CA truck, which also has the GPCM, and when I had a plug fail, it tossed a CEL with exactly which one. I replaced all of them then just because, but it is a cool feature of the GPCM, even if it costs 4 times what a GPR does when it fails.

As said above, teh synthetic oil makes a huge difference, I had -6 on the mercury this morning, not plugged in, counted to 10 after WTS light went out, fired it over, 3 seconds later its running, no romps. With dino oil I had the romps at 30 degrees.

 

Also when plugging the truck in at night, it's wise to use an outdoor timer and set it for 2-3 hours before you want to start. All night uses a lot of juice and costs $$$$. JMO

 

I would cycle the plugs 2-3 times before you try starting it. might help also.

 

Sounds like a normal grumpy diesel and it's behaving like it should. Once your WTS lite goes out, count to 30 then try starting. It will probably fire up better. Make sure your battery connections are squeaky clean too. Switch to Synth Oil and the romps will disappear. My truck had a bad case of them.

BTW... 2WD Ex in Colorado??? Just kidding!!!

 

Yep. Glow plugs will actuaaly warm for up to 2 minutes when cold even though the WTS light goes out right away. Leave that key on for about a minute and she will start much better.

 

Ditto!

And ummmm Big DITTO on the "2WD in Colorado?"

 

Thanks for all of the feedback. I was concerned there was something wrong, seems like everything is okay

Now about my 2WD Ex in CO.......well it was all I could afford and I have two other 4x4's so I could not see going into debt for a tow/family vehicle that is for secondary use. In hind sight, I wish I had a 4WD so I could drive it more, I enjoy driving this truck more then I thought I would.

 

The syn oil will rid you of the romps, it did for me. I hardly plug mine in at all with the glow plugs working well. it was 4* F this AM. No problem.

 

I have a different take on this than what seems to be the most common view. I say something is in fact wrong and needs attention. Nothing fatal, but it should start with no problem in 15 degree weather without plugging it in. Plugging in is a band-aid for something that is amiss and is really mostly a convienence factor to get it warmed up faster, except for maybe our AK friends for example. I have a 180,000 mile truck and run dino 15W-40 and I can guarantee that I can start the thing in 0 degree weather any day of the week without issue, and without being plugged in overnight. No romping, no excessive smoke, no nothing except it running nice and smooth.

So either my truck is an abnormality and I should be thanking the PSD gods, or a whole lot of people have accepted hard cold starts as the norm, when it shouldn't be.

 

Still having issues when not plugged in. I managed to get the truck close enough to the house to plug in a couple of nights ago - about 15 deg again and she fired right up when plugged in. Yesterday, I was not planning on driving it so I did not plug it in, about 20 deg overnight, truck sat well into the afternoon, was bout 30 deg when I tried to start, I let the glow plugs go a minute or so after the WTS went out as suggested, it took three or four times to get it fired. Same as before, romped a couple of times and died. Small amount of white smoke while romping, no smoke once it stayed running. This can't be right? Could my GPR be the problem? What else should I check? The fuel filter has about 10k on it, should I replace it? Oil has less then 1k on it and it is full.

 

Yes the GPR or GPs could be the issue. If I remember correctly the Expy's have a GP module too. Mine is the same way.

The white smoke is excess fuel. It was dumping fuel into the cylinders without catching so when it does catch it dumps it out. Normal

There are alot of people out there that are graced with perfect systems and everything works right. The only way to ensure that is to go through everything involved. But that isn't always possible. So just work with what you can. I personally run a 100 ft cord and plug mine in if it is going to be lower than 40 overnight and mine is a 99 w/ 229 k miles on it.

After replacing the GPR and checking the UVCH ,( since that has the wiring for the injectors and glow plugs), my next item would be to ohm out the glow plugs then check the GP module. Not sure on costs for the module since I don't have one but woulb be easier to check that next.