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It's -20F outside. Cat won't start. Help!

4K views 41 replies 16 participants last post by  Blackcoog 
#1 ·
Hello, it's me, and yes I am still alive. Yes, I still have my cougar.

It's -20 without the windchill and my cougar will not start. I can hear the starter trying to start the motor but it just won't go. I just had a new battery put in about a month ago and the connection from the starter to the battery was also replaced.

Is my battery 'frozen'? Is it destined for the land of dead batteries? Should I just wait til it gets warmer and then try again?

This sucks. :banghead:
 
#3 ·
Hey Matt!!
Thanks for the reply. Soooo should I just magically fly to the store to get a charger? Or wait til it gets warmer? Call AAA? I'm not used to this fuggin cold. And I'm from the Midwest.

Do you get sun dogs in Canadia?
 
#11 ·
If you've grown wings since I last saw you, then totally! Fly to the store! :biggrin:

You could try what Dan said, and just bring the battery inside for a bit, but if that doesn't work, track down someone who has one of those trickle-charger things and just connect it over night :) Is there any autoparts stores around you? They should all carry them.

I don't think I've ever seen sun dogs here, or at least nothing like what I looked up on Wikipedia. Then again, I try to avoid being outside in the winter! :rofl: I hate being cold!
 
#5 ·
It's an ATX. I've done that with my motorcycle but it won't work with the Coug.
 
#6 ·
Throw a oil pan heater on your car. Odds are you oil is too thick right now for it start without causing the battery to drain way down. That is why I keep harping on people to have a good battery (Motocrafts best one) and use a fully synthetic oil (Amsoil). It was -40F last night and the car started right up.

Another thing you can try is to bring the battery inside (as much fun as it will be to get it out of the car) and let it warm up that way.
 
#7 ·
Throw a oil pan heater on your car. Odds are you oil is too thick right now for it start without causing the battery to drain way down. That is why I keep harping on people to have a good battery (Motocrafts best one) and use a fully synthetic oil (Amsoil). It was -40F last night and the car started right up.
Wrong.

This would be the case if the car was attempting to crank at all. I bet my left nut her problem is just the battery here. Either wait for it to warm up outside, or disconnect the battery and bring it in the house, once it gets up to room temp it should still have enough charge to start the car, or put a charger on it. The charger will excite the molecules causing the battery to warm up and of course charge the battery as well, eventually it will be able to provide enough amps to start the car.
 
#8 ·
yeah...I'm having the same issue this morning. Gotta love the tundra. My girlfriend gets giddy every time she sees the temps dropping and snow falling. I have managed to resist the urge to suggest she spend some quality time with them and see if she still feels the same way.
 
#10 ·
I'm not going to go out and get my battery to bring it inside. Call me lazy, but this hacking cough/suspected bronchitis doesn't allow me to breathe out there for too long without wanting to keel over.
Eff winter.

Edit: I just watched my housemate go out and start his girlfriend's Honda civic with no problems. WHAT THE EFF.
 
#14 ·
Call AAA, they will be able to jump you if you need. Your car is having trouble delivering the cold cranking amps that it wants to start. I have that issue because my battery is in the trunk so i have my block heater plugged in to make it easier and not blow the inline fuses i have.
 
#15 ·
I'm having the same issue...not with the Cougar, but with a rental car. I'm doing some work up in Minnesota and it wouldn't start this morning. The bad thing is I called AAA and they sent a huge tow truck out here and even he couldn't get it started.

So now I'm trying to deal with the car rental place to get a car that doesn't suck....problem is the closest car rental place is over an hour away.:banghead:
 
#21 ·
Well *maybe* once it warms up to like -5 I'll try again. If not, I'll call AAA and hope they can come out and try to start it. I may need to call the boyfriend to bring me to an autoparts store. Yippee!
For now, my wiener should keep me warm:
 

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#23 ·
Another thing you can do, if it is sunny like it is here, is to open you hood. The engine and battery should absorb some of the rays to heat it up a little more.
 
#28 ·
'elraido' is right about the oil. That's why some people run a thinner oil in the winter and a thicker oil in the summer. It takes more power to crank the engine when the oil is thick. So it is a combination of the two. A set of jumper cables and a running car should be able to start it.
 
#29 ·
Ok I had a friend with a big nasty truck come over and jump it....took about 20 minutes to get the B started. We think maybe the fuel line was frozen?? Tried pumping the gas and it didn't help much but it magically started after a while. I picked up some HEET to throw in the gas tank, but I use the stuff with 10% ethanol anyway. I guess it just needs to get warmer outside. It's a friggin' tundra!!

Soooo once I got it started I felt bad for the little cat, so I drove around for a while and went and got her feet rotated. Poor girl.

Matt, I can't believe we've been getting snow dogs and you haven't! If I didn't love the U of M and the city so much I'd skip town asap...
 
#32 ·
I doubt the fuel was frozen unless you got some baaaaaad gas. Each time you tried to start it, the oil became a little less "gooey" but your battery couldn't hold enough of a charge to make the oil thin enough to start. If you keep another car hooked up so the battery keeps getting a charge, try to start it and repeat every 5 min or so it will start (as you found out). I don't like that method because it put a lot of strain on your engine. Get an oil change ASAP with a full synthetic and you should be fine for our next cold snap.
 
#30 ·
Ok I had a friend with a big nasty truck come over and jump it....took about 20 minutes to get the B started. We think maybe the fuel line was frozen?? Tried pumping the gas and it didn't help much but it magically started after a while. I picked up some HEET to throw in the gas tank, but I use the stuff with 10% ethanol anyway. I guess it just needs to get warmer outside. It's a friggin' tundra!!

Soooo once I got it started I felt bad for the little cat, so I drove around for a while and went and got her feet rotated. Poor girl.

Matt, I can't believe we've been getting snow dogs and you haven't! If I didn't love the U of M and the city so much I'd skip town asap...
 
#35 ·
Possible you had a bad tank of gas, too. Had some water in it. I've had issues with that before, and we don't get near -40. It was only around -10 at the time. The only two times I had issues with it, I had purchased it from the same gas station both times - never been back, and never had any other problems.
 
#40 ·
You are bumping a thread that isn't yours so you can get troubleshooting tips for YOUR car/problem that doesn't even sound related to the original post? :facepalm:

Try the 'suck test' on your EGR valve, maybe it's sticking open.
 
#42 ·
Those codes listed wouldn't be the cause of your starting issues unless you had a severe air leak which is very unlikely unless a hose fell off after the MAF. Even then it wouldn't stay running if it was that bad and it sounds like your car still runs. The EGR code will not affect starting ability. It could be a bad DPFE sensor...
 
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