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cold weather starting woes

BoneIdle

Jedi Trainee
Offline
It's been cold up here in the Cedar Rapids area. In fact, many of our recent highs have hovered around or below 0 degrees Fahrenheit and our lows have gone down to -13 or so.

I've been driving the S10 since school started. It was basically Hobson's choice ( i.e. the truck was closest to the end of the driveway, but I was starting the GT every couple of
days. I missed about a week of my routine while I was down with an ear infection ( didn't miss school though) and when I went to start the car, I had absolutely no luck.

The pattern is consistent: the starter turns over twice (sounds like nnnNNNnn nnNNNNnn) and then there's the sound of a relay ( the solenoid, I'm guessing) ticking almost, but not quite, fast enough to be considered a buzz.

I hooked up the S10 to the GT via jumper cables and still had the same symptoms. Whenever I'd switch the ignition on in the GT the S10's engine speed decreased, so I'm pretty sure the GT was drawing current.

Now I'm beginning to wonder if the problem is with the starter, solenoid, or something else that could have frozen due the cold temperatures. I don't mind pulling the battery and having it checked, but I can't understand why it's not cranking over when using the S10's battery.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Garry
 
GT battery is going flat... S10 hasn't enuff to both recharge it AND spin up the B. Do a full charge on the battery first. If it still acts that way drag it to a shop for a load test.

Stay WARM "out there"!
 
You mean 615 CCA isn't enough to turn the GT over?
Wow!
 
in the warmth of your home
pick up key chain with fob
Push and hold the button with the key icon
wait 10 minutes
walk out to nicely warm and running vehicle
drive away

:jester:

mark
 
First thing I would check are the connections from the battery to ground and battery to solenoid. Clean and tighten them, as well as both terminals. Huge difference in resistance between corroded and clean.

If you don't get anything more than a click with the S10 running (and it is a known good battery holding a charge) and connected to the B, your problem is more than likely connections related, not capacity related.
 
BoneIdle said:
You mean 615 CCA isn't enough to turn the GT over?
Wow!


Well one would think so, but at those extreme low temperatures the battery's capacity has been virtually deleted. If had actually frozen it would look like an open circuit--Fwiw--Keoke
 
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