cold climate Tbird

after really cold nights (below 15degrees F) I have problems getting the starter motor to crank. The starter is only a couple months old and I hear the relay working. When it happened the other day I topped off the battery cells with water (5 month old battery) and she started right up. yesterday morning I again had the no start problem, tried jumping starting from another batt, and still no start. 5 min later she started up on her own. Any thoughts?
Matt

Does it start normally on hotter or warmer days?

On a sidenote I started my car up at 28F and it goes fine.... its covered in snow right now though lol.

The cold makes your battery less efficient at releasing energy and it also makes all that oil real thick.

Mine has been cranking a little slow on a brand new battery, but the battery is a 39.95 special.

As far as topping off your battery, Did you use distilled water? It's not good to use tap water. Plus a 5 month old battery should not need any water. I would have the battery checked along with the alternator to make sure you're not under/over charging.

I'm just to your south - Somerset Ma

Aaron

toolmanmatt said:

after really cold nights (below 15degrees F) I have problems getting the starter motor to crank. The starter is only a couple months old and I hear the relay working. When it happened the other day I topped off the battery cells with water (5 month old battery) and she started right up. yesterday morning I again had the no start problem, tried jumping starting from another batt, and still no start. 5 min later she started up on her own. Any thoughts?
Matt

Click to expand...

Check the following:
1) cable connections - Be sure that the ends and the connections to the clamps are CLEAN. If they are fuzzy, replace the cable.
2) connections @ Starter - Make sure the connections are clean and tight. Also check the small wire on the starter. The original wire was a push-on terminal. This push-on terminal sucks. Replace it.
3) Battery- I know its fairly new but have a load test done on it. Make sure that all of the cells are up and that they are equal in Spec. gravity. If a cell is over 10% off it will die.

Hope this helps!