Josh Battles wrote:
> "Jeff Durling" <jdurling@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
>
>>Yeah, the PCM is picky. I noticed on mine when it did it it only took a
>>drop to 11.6 volts for it to start acting loopy. 11.4 volts will make
>>it nearly impossible to run. I could bump my battery (actually both
>>times) and somehow the truck would run fine again for a while. I know.
>>strange.
>
>
> That's weird. I figured that when my battery went bad, I just wouldn't be
> able to start the truck. Stuff like this is just plain scary. You'd think
> that maybe they'd design something in that would help prevent this. If I
> wasn't paying attention, i could have certainly gotten into an accident,
> especially when it died while I was trying to make a turn. That was scary
> and I was lucky nobody else was on the road with me. Maybe I'll just stop
> on my way home and pick up another battery regardless of how it tests, the
> one I have is 5 years old now.
Given how much of a steaming pile of crap most of the people here view
the battery to be, I wouldn't waste any time in replacing it. I've been
happy as can be with my Optima. I didn't have starting problems in
particular -- the truck would start up right away (although the starter
sounded a bit sluggish -- my first indication of impending battery
doom). The problem was keeping it running after it started. With low
voltage on the PCM (until the alternator gets going), it's nearly
impossible to keep the damn truck started. First start wasn't hard,
though. Turned the key, it started, RPMs dropped a tad and then came
up. I decided to put my jump starter in the truck just in case. It
made it through a couple more starts until I stopped for gas on the way
to work. It refused to start up again. I attached my handy jump start
box to it and used that to start the truck. Even then, it had a hard
time staying running for the first minute or so. I drove around the
corner to the shop I always go to and had them check it out. Within a
minute or two they confirmed it was the battery and my response was
"give me the best damned battery you have... I don't want to do this
again." The Optima was what I ended up with. That was 4/4/03 and I
picked up my truck on 4/22/00 (I think) so I'd say that you have been
lucky with yours if it's made it this long.
-Bill
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Nov 01 2004 - 10:47:42 EST