Looking for help with some electrical issues on my 1999 F450.

Here are the symptoms starting from fully charged battery that was just connected and no key in the ignition.

ABS pump clicks repeatedly
AC fan works on any setting unless you set it to off
Random clicking under the dash
Radio randomly attempts to turn on and off
Starter randomly turns the motor - starter turns but it never fires

Has anyone experienced this problem? Does anyone have any advice? It's almost like the key is turned on and it randomly get's enough power to kick in the starter only there is no key in the ignition and it never fires.

If I put the key in and start the truck it seems to work fine.

Thanks

 

No good answer here but i'm subscribing because this is such a strange sounding problem.
It almost sounds like there is some wiring problem in the steering column

 

Do you have remote start?

 

No remote start.

I have disconnected the white box on the lower side of the column that slides when you turn the key and it still happens with that wiring disconnected.

I was able to track down the noise under the dash to a set of relays under the middle section of the dash. I can see them from the drivers side with the lower panel off, but need some more time to see if I can get at them without taking more of the dash apart.

 

I have a 2000 f250 and had similiar problems as with the relays clicking and the radio issues as well as the gauges tweaking out and the door chime going crazy. All this when you would attempt to start the engine and would keep going crazy even after the key was removed. Long story short, I ended up replacing the ground and positive cable ends at the battery. Fixed problem for 2 years and then door chime started chiming while going down the road without the door ajar indication on gauge panel. Cleaned ground on battery and fixed this problem as well. Chalked it all up to having sensitivity to ground connections. Funny what issues not having a good ground can create. Good Luck!

 

I could be off on this one but i believe it's part of the computer management system. This does this on one of our work vehicles (GMC) when i have replaced the battery as well as jumping it. It should only do this once while the management is re-learning itself. If it's randomly doing it i would suspect a bad connection on the battery as dog mentioned if this only started when the battery was replaced. Battery terminals should always be kept extremely clean.

 

Found the problem. At the top of the windshield under the rubber seal the roof is rusting and allowing water to enter the cab and run down the inside of the windshield. The water must have worked it's way into the relays under the dash because once it dried out everything was fine and as soon as it rained the problem was back. I have it temporarily sealed for now until I can get to the body shop.

Thanks for all your advice.

 

Rep points for reporting back with the fix