For the last couple of months I have started noticing an issue with my truck. When I go to start it it will start up and then die. I turn the key and the truck will hesitate to start up, but will turn over. I do not get any check engine lights nor do I have this issue every time I go to start the truck, but about every fifth or sixth time I go to start it I'll have this issue.

Anyone else have this issue or know what could be causing this? I haven't been driving my truck a lot since I bought a motorcycle last October so wondering if it's a combination of just sitting a lot and maybe some crappy gas since I have been filling up with cheaper gas compared to Shell gas which I normally put in it.

Thanks in advance.

 

Will it ONLY do this after it has been driven? Like say you stop at a gas station, kill the engine, get a cup of coffee and a doughnut, then crank the engine and it dies?

Which if it is, it might be one of three things, or a possible combination:

1. Faulty Fuel Pump.
2. Plugged fuel filter.
3. EVAP problem.

 

Mine does that if I let it sit for a week or so, and randomly does it if it was already running...I think my fuel filter has something to do with it

 

battery

 

What flavor engines you guys running? 5.4l or 4.6l? How many miles? When was the battery changed, if ever?


Eh... it could be. But it sounds like they are getting plenty of juice.

 

Yeah it seems that it does this after I have driven the truck and then stopped somewhere. Like last night my son and I went to the movies, came out got in the truck and then went to get something to eat. It was after we came out from eating that the truck started, did a little hesitation and then died. I cranked the truck again and it fired right up with no issues.

Mine has the 5.4l in it and my battery was changed last June.

I was talking to my wife and she says when her car gets below 1/4 tank it will do the same thing. Wondering if it has something to do with that because I am right now below a 1/4 tank. Any thoughts?

 

My truck has done this like once or twice before regardless of where the fuel level is in the tank.

I rule out the battery.

I can say that there is a phenomena called something, but I can't think of the name of it right now. It's when the engine does a final spin when you kill the engine, it still has fuel in a few cylinders, then when you re crank the engine it floods momentarily until a few other revs. Sometimes it will backfire, but in fuel injected engines it is rare because there just is a small amount of extra fuel. But I've experienced a backfire before in my Escape I previously had. It did the same thing and then like 2 seconds later it sounded like a muffled balloon pop through the intake manifold. That's why they always tell you to run an air filter anytime you run an engine... it's kind of like a flame arrester too.

If you think that is bad, Nissans are renown for doing this, as it has something to do with the injectors firing even after the engine killed. Every Nissan I've ever been in has done it.

Like I said, my truck has done it once or twice... my '99 did it a few times too... but it was rare. But when it does crank, it will blow a nice small cloud of black smoke of raw fuel.

 

So it seems my truck is definitely not the only one doing it and by the sounds of it it's not something to get overly concerned about. I think I'll start keeping track of how often it's occurring and if it really has anything to do with brand of gas or fuel level in the truck. Problem is driving the truck is a rarity since I started riding my motorcycle, I've only put a little over 1100 miles on the truck in the last 6 months.

 

If yours is an 04 or 05 with the 5.4 take it in to the dealer right away. It could be the dreaded injector problem.

 

The injector issue was 05-06 IIRC, not 04...just an fyi I do believe.

 

My 06 does a similar dance about once, maybe twice a year.

If I bump my starter and not hold the key to start the truck, it will act like you are describing. Its hard to start after this condition takes hold, but it will start after about 5-10 seconds.

It has been doing this since new and does it stock or tuned (for me). I'm not worried about it. In my case, I chaulk it up to one of those freak things that happen.

 

I too had my truck die, and as I paid more attention to it, noticed that I hear a bit of stumbling at idle. I did a simple cleaning of the throttle body, just used a rag with some WD40 on it and wiped out the deposts in the TB and the butterfly valves...sure got a lot of gunk out of there. I plan on doing a bench cleaning too, but I no longer have the stumble and have not had it die on me at all since the cleaning. I am also in need of a new fuel filter which could be another source of *your* problem. As for some of the other diagnosises here, I tend to lean towards issues related to regular maintenance rather than the "catastrophic failure" type of thinking, but hey, that's my 2 cents.
Good luck and post back.

 

I was wondering the same thing...I've had mine for about 3 months, and it has happened twice to me.

Turn the key over and it fires then almost immediately dies with a bad stumble. An immediate re-crank attempt failed both times, but 5-10 seconds later all was fine with the next try.

Got a new fuel filter laying in the passenger seat...I hope that is what it is.

 

I think I will do a fuel filter change at the least and see what that does. Also gonna go back to putting the good gas in her. Been running 92 octane that I buy at my local Navy Exchange for about the last 4 or 5 tanks. Gonna go back to Shell even if it means I have to drop down to 87 octane. Gas out here is still almost $3 for 92 octane.

 

don't think it's the gas. I run the stuff from the NEX Gas Station off Bouganville in my truck (92 octane) and in my Durango (89 octane) and they both run like champs


sounds like a bad battery...or dirty throttle body...or dirty MAF.


I know my throttle body was dirty as hell back in Oct when I installed the Supercharger. Took a good 5 minutes of cleaning with alcohol to remove all the stuff.


might wanna give that a try, and a new fuel filter won't hurt anything