Cold engine dies right away

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jkeaton

It’s been real
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Jan 1, 2013
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Winston Salem, NC
Funny this thread is going on. This morning (not that cold @40 F) my truck started and died right away. Took several tries to get it to fire then I had to feather the gas for a few minutes then it idled fine and ran great all the way to work. Mind you, the other day it was in the single digits and it started fine the first time. Got no check engine light. Interesting.
 

GL1500

I'm Awesome
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Feb 29, 2016
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Byron Center MI
I believe I've fixed the problem.

The problem was happening more often and I noticed a couple times that when it quit the "idiot" lights (seatbelt, anti-lock, etc.) would go on like I had just turned the key on. Also, the stereo would lose its presets. Once when running on the highway it felt like I lost power on a couple cylinders and I think it lost tc lockup. I believe it just went into limp mode? I checked my battery cables and found the positive was loose enough that I could move the cable by hand. The cable end was also hot to the touch so I knew it wasn't getting a solid connection. The strange thing to me is that I never had a problem with the truck turning over. I don't have a wiring diagram but it appears they have 2 positive cables, one that goes to the starter which was making good contact and the other cable supplies the ecm etc. Evidently this cable was losing power causing the gremlins and becoming worse the more I drove it. It's been a couple days since I fixed the cable issue and no more episodes.
 
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