The truck in my sig spent the night on the wire. Both thermometers at house and garage read -19F this morning but I’ve started in lower temps and therefore expected no problem.

I jumped into the cab, turned on the key, turned air switch to off, the heat all the way up and the air control to windshield. When the grid heater indicator went out (didn’t take long) I cranked. 3-4 turns the engine fires off and immediately the loudest, wicked sounding growl emanates from forward. In about the time you could think “What the heck!” and reach for the key to kill the engine, it fades away.

Fades away to nothing.

I sat still with my hand on the key, reading instruments. Oil pressure okay, voltage okay, temp just off the peg from the block heater. Engines sounds normal.

Jumped out of the cab and popped hood. No shredded belt or jetting fluids. No abnormal sounds. Situation seemed normal. Popped the emergency brake and drove out on to the highway down the mountain.

Here’s where it gets weird. The emergency brake light is still on, steady and not blinking. And so is the ABS light. And my mirror heaters won’t ignite. And my air control switch no longer works. Air flow remains directed to the windshield no matter what position it’s turned to.

Coasted to a stop. The E-brake is not dragging, but I don’t want head down that 10% grade without anti-lock braking system, even with studs and 4wd. It is snow-covered ice all the way down (1400ft drop).

I remembered reading here somewhere that three key-on’s clears a code. I don’t see a code anywhere, but I try it and poof…all the lights go out and everything works. Drove to the shop (37 miles) and parked it.

Figure I’ll wait until I hear from the experts on DTR.

Any ideas?

 

I wonder if a fuse popped? Or a relay burned out?

At least that's what I would be checking for. Most new cars have lots of relays. I had a relay go out on a Mazda I had. It affected the A/C, and several other electrical items in the car.

 

sometimes very cold temps do weird things to vehicles. it's not always the temp when you start the truck but how long the temp was that low while the truck sat. for example the temp when you get to your truck might be -20 but the temp first dropped that low in early am while on another day it may be -5 but it has been that cold or colder for the entire night. i had some weird cold mornings with a 2nd gen ctd i had a couple of years back.

 

I would assume that the ignition switch was stuck towards the crank position -the abs/brake lights will be on because the module gets no power in the crank position, niether does the hvac or the accessories ( heated mirrors) - that would also make sense of the wierd noise ( starter may still have been cranking) . Tolerances get tighter the colder things get! I'd use some dry graphite lube on the ignition tumbler and see if that helps the problem.

 

either the above, or there was a cat curled up on that block heater. wraaaaaaaroooooow as it runs away !

 

As above bet teh switch was partially stuck. Had a 98 Chrysler Concorde that would suddenly have the windows, AC radio and many other things not work witht eh ABS light on and a few other warnings going off also. Wiggled the key and all was well. Did it frequently but was trying to trade the car so didn;t want to spend the bucks to replace the switch.

 

Would have had to been a lion to make that much noise. Reckon a lion might have made an impression when I opened the hood.

Could be on the ignition switch. I remember it being a little crotchety when doing the three key on/offs.

That growling the starter gear grinding on the flywheel? (sure hope not).

-20F isn't all THAT cold. And it's only November. Saw -42F last year. This needs fixin'.

Okay...Kari Dodge, here we come.... Sticking ignition switch in the cold.

Thanks all, for the hints.

 

Air control turned to wind shield.Did you engauge that poor ac compressor in that cold ?

 

Ewww! Never thought of that! The ECM should keep it disengaged though, due to the ambient temperature. I don't know the refresh rate on that particular reading for the ecm though. If it had been warmer the day before, it may have kicked on. I know my overhead ( ambient reading) doesn't refresh real quick. It would surely freeze the evaporator up in a matter of seconds though!!! Hope that wasn't his noise!

 

Nope! AC was not on. Don't use it on windshield unless things get foggy inside.

It was about +12F on the way home the day before. No AC.

Since it was -19F inside the cab too, I tried immediately switching it all the way left to bilevel recirculate so the heat level would come up quicker even with the needle just off the peg. When the air stream continued against the windshield, I began to wonder what was going on. Fan would run and change speeds, but the ventilation controls were stuck on windshield.

I've heard the grind when someone tries to start an engine already running. This sound was not like that. Much deeper. Think I will check below the fan tomorrow. Once got a packrat with the serpentine in my 04.5 truck. Never even heard that one though.

 

you may not have had the a/c button on, but you said that you put it to defrost, that turns the a/c on automaticlly to help with defrosting, even if the button is not lit up

 

This is true? How the heck can you clear the glass in winter... inside when your breath freezes on it.

I have other vehicles with AC and none of them use AC on the windshield unless you demand it with the AC button.

Okay, now I need to crank the dodge at the shop tomorrow, let it warm up and then see if the AC still works or not.

Anyway, the fan was switched to OFF when I cranked and that definitely kills the AC.

 

All air conditioned vehicles are designed to turn on the compressor in all defrost modes. This is because the a/c will DRY the air before blowing it on to the glass. (the moisture is attracted to the cold evaporator core- same reason your a/c will drip water on the ground in the summer.)

 

The computer should tell it to stay off until it is warmer out but it may have been on when you shut the truck off, then when you started it, it was still on and it took a second for the computer to shut it off, they do this to keep condinsation from building up in the cab on cold rainy days.

 

I've had a lot of cold starts (Fairbanks, AK) with my 2nd Gen trucks, and if I hadn't really warmed 'em up well, or driven very far the previous day, and the temps stayed really cold (-20 or below), the power steering pump would make a terrible noise on the first start of the day. As our brakes are powered by the PS pump, that could also explain the ABS light. There was allegedly a TSB to fix the problem with a lighter PS fluid, but I never bothered as it didn't happen that often, and the service tech swore it wouldn't cause any damage.