Hesitant to start. Intermittently.
 

Hello all you great forum members! Nothing too crazy but I wanted to know if anyone has had any experience with this or not. Aka should I look further into it or just leave it.

Every once in a while probably once ever 50 starts my truck doesnt want to start right up like it usually does it will just turn over. Obviously it's not a starter issue, I'm thinking it's something fuel related, however I must say, the first time I ever encountered this was shortly after installing my cold air intake, has anyone else encountered this? Even on cold starts in 20 degree weather my truck turns over for a half second and fires right up so I thought this to be odd.

Thanks all!

It could be a sticky IAC valve.

I just had problem with my Cat Converters and it would present like this. It fooled me for a while until I put a simple Vac gauge on it to see that Vac was low at idle. This maybe not be your problem but don't count it out.
:hunter:

Clogged cats?

You've got me scratching my head on this one. Like @Bad Luck , are you saying your catalytic converters were blocked up? Also, what did you put a vacuum gauge on?

If you are talking about blocked up catalytic converters, why would that cause an intermittent hard start. I would think it would be more of a constant issue if the cats were in bad shape.

It could also be related to fuel pressure at start up. I cleaned the maf replaced the fuel filter , checked and cleaned the battery terminals etc but the symptoms remained. Ended up being the oe fuel pump, which finally gave up after a year or so but lasted about 300k so it was due.

I've seen blocked cats cause mid-low range and above rpm loss of power and lower intake vacuum because of the restriction, but I've never heard of it causing a intermittent start issue.

Yeah, I've heard of the loss of power as well with blocked cats, but like you, I haven't heard of it causing an intermittent starting issue either.

I'd like to see how somebody measures the intake vacuum pressure.

I'm going to do the fuel pump and filter soon. I already have the OEM filter replacement just need the pump. This is a good suggestion I appreciate it!

I will add this to the list! Fortunately I deleted one of my cats and the other is brand new so no need to even consider cats.

I’d do the IAC first


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You should be able to hook a vacuum gauge to where the brake booster connects to the intake.

I'm just going to do it all! I never shy from proper preventative maintenance! Neither do you I'm sure that's why I love this forum! Honestly best online community for any vehicle that I've ever come across.

Hesitant to start. Intermittently.
 

I’m going to say this......

As part of our collective and sharing knowledge, shotgunning the problem by replacing a bunch of things at the same time may fix it but not define what was the actual problem from a troubleshooting perspective.

You can still replace all the things you want but do it one part at a time to figure out what’s causing the problem.

There are a bunch of extended crank threads without any solution. My Ex’s 97 Puppy Hauler would start normal in about 2 seconds on the starter. Then on occasion it would take longer. 5 or so. It’s not my problem anymore.

If it was my problem I’d do the IAC first since at times I caught it idling high. And cleaning it would fix it.

Second I’d watch fuel rail pressure to see if a injector was leaking and bleeding off rail pressure.

Third would be fuel filter (in my case it’s only two years old)

Fourth would be fuel pump.

I do not think our fuel pump starts running until it’s put to start. American rigs will run the fuel pump at ignition on for a few seconds and after it detects engine run it will keep it running.


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You're logic is extremely true! Usually when trying to fix something troubleshooting is the best way or else like you said you're just throwing a bunch of parts at it, in this case I was leaning more towards doing all three just because theres really no way for me to know if what I did worked or not unless my truck does the same thing again which may more may not happen. Perks of not having any prior maintenance records on a 20 year old truck Haha I get to replace everything! When i dug down to the timing belt to replace it that bad boy was on its last leg. I've been under the impression for quite some time that the maintenance wasnt kept up very well on my truck. I dont notice any high idle or anything just every once in a while a good 5 second crank kinda like you said.