Truck has trouble starting when cold

[Kgibson1315]

This happend twice and both times the temperature outside was in the low 20's. Nothing wrong with my battery. What I did this time was open the hood and tap on the positive battery terminal. Got in the truck and it started right up. Never have any problems starting unless the truck sits outside with temps in the low 20's. Any ideas why this happens?

 

[huntergreen]

Clean the terminals ?

 

[Burla]

Original Battery that nothing is wrong with?

 

[mtofell]

Two times is not enough to establish a pattern of, "only when cold" or "tapping on the battery terminal fixed it."

It could be that you crank a few times and it starts to move fuel, you get out and tap the battery but just as well could have done ten jumping jacks. You get back in and enough fuel has moved to make it start.

I have no idea about what could be wrong but be careful about going down irreleveant rabbit holes.

 

[tron67j]

Batteries are fallible, tapping it may suggest a bad terminal connection inside the battery itself. When it gets cold everything shrinks maybe just enough to make contact inside a bit iffy. Tapping makes things "go back to touching better", if you will. Not saying this is the only possibility but if you have cleaned terminals and tightened the cables and you still have a problem, replacement at least removes that from equation. Good luck

 

[16Ram4x4]

As suggested, clean the battery posts and the terminals as they might have some slight corrosion causing your problems

 

[crash68]

How old is the battery? and how long does the vehicle sit before you have problems starting it when cold?

 

[Burla]

Average car battery life is 2-5 years, and hemi's require more cold crank amps then 95% of the gas vehicles out there. So more info is needed to rule out battery, is it a new battery? Has the CCA been tested like at a tire shop or something?

 

[Kgibson1315]

Clean the terminals ?

They are clean as new.

 

[Kgibson1315]

How old is the battery? and how long does the vehicle sit before you have problems starting it when cold?

The battery is 2 years old. The 2 times it has done this is when I was at work from 7p-7a. The truck otherwise is always garage kept.

 

[Kgibson1315]

Average car battery life is 2-5 years, and hemi's require more cold crank amps then 95% of the gas vehicles out there. So more info is needed to rule out battery, is it a new battery? Has the CCA been tested like at a tire shop or something?

I took the battery and had it tested at Advance Auto the first time it happend. It tested good and is problem free ever since.