Battery or Starter?
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Joined: Aug 2007
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Battery or Starter?
I have a 1996 Ram 1500 with the 5.2 V8. Over the past month or so, it has been hard to start on random occasions. At first I thought it was a battery issue... it would seem to have a hard time turning over, so I'd try it a couple times. The first couple cranks would be barely more than a click and nothing... then VROOM, it started up like there wasn't a problem.
On a whim, I pulled the battery cables and cleaned off the terminals just to see if that was it. While I was there, I pulled the caps off just to make surethebattery hadn'tcracked and run itself dry (I've had that happen before). It looked fine, so I hooked it back up. Same problem.
Does this sound like a battery problem, or more likely a starter motor problem? I'm starting (no pun intended) to lean toward the starter. Thoughts?
Oh, and the other thing... once I hooked it back up, it started on the third crank... but then stalled. I cranked it again... started fine, then stalled. Third time, started to stall, so I revved to 2500RPM for a few seconds and let off the throttle. Started to stall again, so I revved it to 2500RPM for another few seconds. After a couple repeats it stayed running and hasn't had a problem.
I was wondering if unhooking the battery reset some ECU's or otherwise tweaked with the FI until it had a few seconds to run and such. Yeah, yeah... that's me just guessing. Thoughts on that problem?
Thanks in advance for y'all's help. I've owned this Dodge for about 5-6 years but I have only now joined this forum... hope to be more active soon.
RMF
On a whim, I pulled the battery cables and cleaned off the terminals just to see if that was it. While I was there, I pulled the caps off just to make surethebattery hadn'tcracked and run itself dry (I've had that happen before). It looked fine, so I hooked it back up. Same problem.
Does this sound like a battery problem, or more likely a starter motor problem? I'm starting (no pun intended) to lean toward the starter. Thoughts?
Oh, and the other thing... once I hooked it back up, it started on the third crank... but then stalled. I cranked it again... started fine, then stalled. Third time, started to stall, so I revved to 2500RPM for a few seconds and let off the throttle. Started to stall again, so I revved it to 2500RPM for another few seconds. After a couple repeats it stayed running and hasn't had a problem.
I was wondering if unhooking the battery reset some ECU's or otherwise tweaked with the FI until it had a few seconds to run and such. Yeah, yeah... that's me just guessing. Thoughts on that problem?
Thanks in advance for y'all's help. I've owned this Dodge for about 5-6 years but I have only now joined this forum... hope to be more active soon.
RMF
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Joined: Jan 2006
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RE: Battery or Starter?
my guess too would be the batt or a week alt not charging it fully, most shops and even parts stores will load test a batt to tell you how it is. they test to see how many amps they can draw off while maintaning voltage, you can still have good (12.4-12.6 volts) and have a bad bat if the bat tests out ok (whitch i dont think it will) have your alt output tested