I got a new battery about a month ago in my 2003 Ford Ranger , but its been only the past week that I’ve noticed that instead of an instant start on the motor after ignition that its taking about 2 to 3 long seconds of healthy cranking to fire up.
Somethings changed and I’d like to know what’s happening.
Could be quite a few things.
I guess the first thing will be to try to figure out if the battery is weak or if the engine is having a harder time turning over. Why was the battery recently replaced? Is there something draining and slowly killing the battery?
As for other ideas, it could be the starter motor getting weak, the fuel pump check valve leaking (resulting in low fuel pressure on start), bad spark plugs and/or wires, dirty air filter, dirty fuel filter, clogged exhaust (possibly due to bad catalytic converter - that happened to me once), cracked distributer cap letting in moisture, or a whole bunch of other things that I’m not thinking of off the top of my head.
Does your check engine light stay on all the time?
The last battery suddenly died. Instant starts until then.
Instant starts with the new battery until a week ago.
BTW, this only happens first thing in the morning. Subsequent starts all day are instant.
No
I was cursed with a similar problem and turned out to be *two *things: a bearing in the alternator made for irregular charging and a fuel pump problem made for irregular starting.
This suggests a slow leak in the fuel pressure check valve and/or some weakness in the fuel pump. The first thing I’d do is use a fuel pressure gauge to test operating pressure and rest pressure. Rest pressure measurements should be taken after a few minutes past shutoff of the engine, then a few hours, then overnight.
Since you said starts subsequent to the first of the day are instant, I believe fuel may be draining back to the tank and the extra starting time is required to pump the system up to needed pressure.
You can verify this by the following. Come out in the morning and cycle the fuel pump by turning the key on, but not to the start position. The fuel pump will run for two seconds and quit. You can even hear it. Do this three times and then turn the key fully to the start position. If it starts instantly then, you have identified the problem as a bad check valve in the fuel pump. You can either live with it or change it.