when starting in the morning the truck stops

[eplegrand]

I have a 6 year old truck that drove 160000 miles. I have it serviced on a normal schedule. It is a 3.2 liter diesel common rail truck. By the way, I live in Thailand so the model is different from the US. It is a Mitsubishi truck.

Once and a while, when I start it within 30 seconds it stops. It is doing this only if I didn’t drive it for let’s say about 12 hours. So in the morning. Once it is running (and the engine is warm) all is fine, though when I give full gas to accelerate it feels sometimes that the engine is choking.

Even though of course the engine has to warm up, the temperature here is over a hundred F.

Even after the last service it has still the same. Last service I changed oil and oil filter among other things.

Any idea what it can be? Something with the fuel pump maybe? Any ideas?

Topic

[dan]

any codes or engine light?

I would check your battery, i would also check your fuel pressure, Diesel engines require good fuel pressure to operate properly, if fuel pressure is low it could be causing lean conditions especially on a cold start… could be a number of things, extracting codes could help narrow things down.

[eplegrand]

Thanks for the feedback. I was wondering about the battery. By the way, I don’t know much about cars. But if it would be a battery problem, could that cause the engine to stop after for example 20 sec? I thought the battery only helps to start the engine in the first 1 or 2 seconds.
The fuel pressure, is that about the fuel pump?
What do you mean / how can you extract code?

Thanks again for the feedback.

Peter

[Timothy Salomon]

Most vehicles in North america and europe have a port on the lower dashboard to attach an obd II code reader to read trouble codes stored in the engine computer.
You’d need access to the scanner for the obd connection to read the codes.
You can still check fuel pressure with a gauge that fits on a port on the fuel rail that is about the size of a tire valve. You screw the fuel pressure gauge on, and then read the pressure when the engine is running. Usually around 50 psi. Or 344 kpa.

[dan]

if you don’t have a scan tool some parts stores can scan codes for free, usually scan tools plug into a port on the drivers side just below the dash above the floor… or above your feet, depends on exactly where some cars very…

as far as fuel pressure testing goes you may need a fuel pressure gauge and knowing the correct procedure for testing or get a friend who knows the correct procedures and know the static and running fuel pressure statistics for your vehicle.

[Author]

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