On cold mornings (below freezing), when I start my '03 Durango, it will start fine and then die. I have to turn the key off and back on and it will start right back up and then die again. Sometimes I have to do this 8-10 times before it will stay running. After it starts in the morning it will start fine the rest of the day. It starts fine on warm days.

Any idea where I should look to fix this? It has about 170K miles on it.

Thanks,
Danny

 

Sounds like your battery. Check on the label for CCA rating.

 

Does your security light on the dash flash when it does it? If so could be your transponder key

 

Uhh... No.


Sounds like a faulty TPS or IAC sensor. Though those typically don’t have symptoms related to temps...

 

Could be a combination of the IAC and battery, or even battery connections.

 

..He says it starts fine, but if turned off and re-started it wont start (on cold mornings, meaning more than 1 time). I assume he means this is common.

Otherwise he’d say “it started fine, then it wouldn’t start again”.


That said, it’s not the battery because if the battery was toast, it wouldn’t do anything at all. If it was the altnerator, same thing, once the battery goes dead, that’s it. Batteries don’t charge themselves when off. So if he starts the rig, turns it off, re-starts but it doesn’t work (but only on cold mornings) then the next day it starts back up again......

 

The battery is only a year old. It spins the engine fine. I suspect an electrical problem somewhere. No codes are thrown.

It starts every time I try to start it. But on the first several times in the morning, it will die after a few seconds. If I turn the key off and then back on it will start back up and then die again. After several tries it will stay running and be fine the rest of the day.

 

Could be a number of things.. honestly I'd check out the TPS and IAC. I had issues where on cold mornings my truck would WANT to stall. I think it did stall once.. But this is again, a long shot. Those sensors do contribue to the running of the motor.

Otherwise I'm at a loss

 

Thanks, I'll check them.