Hello all -

Need some help, here's the background:

2000 Excursion 4x4 XLT 7.3PSD auto, bone stock, 189K.
Owned since 2004 averaging 13k miles/yr, no heaving towing. This is our third vehicle so it sits for several days at a time up to a week without use.

3 weeks back all is fine. One night leaving a freinds I put it in drive and the OD on/off light started flashing. I shut it off and restarted immediately. No flashing, no issues. Fine for a week of mild around town use. After a night of our first cold weather (not real cold, western WA low 30's overnight) I thought I'd take it to town on some errands since it had been sitting for a week. Slow cranking but it started, figured the colder weather and sitting it just needed a charge top off so put the trickle charger on it overnight. Started fine the next day but SES light came on and stayed on. Next weekend no start, rrr rrrrr, dead. Charged it, made a dump run and other errands no issues starting multiple times around town but SES still on.

Last Saturday evening loading up to go skiing Sunday at Mt. Baker I barely got it started. Put the trickle on it overnight and fired up crisp Sunday morning and went skiing. End of day I started it just fine, pulled up to the lodge and left it idling for 30 minutes as we loaded gear and family. Heater on high, radio, kids electronics charging. Put it in reverse OD light started flashing. Shut it off and attempted to restart. rrr rrr, dead, totally dead. Got a jump but had to let it charge for 20 minutes before it fired. Headed straight for home 1.5 hours headlights on, no issues except SES light still on.

Next morning rrrr rrrr, dead. Trickle charged all day and after work put my Innova 3160b on it to pull codes:



P0503 Vehicle Speed Sensor A Intermittent/Erratic/High
P1298 Injector driver module (IDM) failure
Reading the various threads here I disconnected both batteries and charged them overnight resulting in clearing all codes.

Hooked the batteries back up and rescanned Key-on and attempted to start but only cranked. Second try just rrrr rrr, clk clk, dead.

Only one code reappeard, the IDM P1298 plus these new ones:

P1000 ODB readiness test not complete
P0603 Power train control module keep alive memory (KAM) Error

Now it won't start and charging the batteries only provides one or two cranking attempt of say 15 seconds then, clk clk dead.

What step can you recommend I take? I am hoping simply a bad battery or alternator is simply throwing various false codes after reading other posts but many stories of replacing these items and not solving the problem.

Should I first pull the batteries and alterator to take in for bench test loading? Greatly appreciate advise on steps I should take.

Heimer77

 

Your batteries are most likely bad. If you have a dead cell, the alternator can not keep the voltage going into the batteries. At idle it is easy to kill the batteries, especially with a dead cell. You may also find it is time to replace the alternator too. Seems like if the batteries go, the alternator goes soon after due to the increased work it has been doing. Usually just the brushes and rotor slip ring are worn.

 

Woodnthings -

I think the alternator is original, at least I've never changed it since I bought the vehicle in 2004, so very reasonable it is done. Is it possible/easy to just replace the brushes and slip ring? I've alway just bought a new alternator on vehicles. I suspect these are fairly spendy. If I buy a new one should I be looking for a higher output one with all the additional electronics the family plugs in and we commonly have it sitting idling.

Batteries are 85 month Interstate. Looking at my shop receipts looks like I put those in 36 months ago. I guess anything can fail at anytime but I'll be a little surprised if one or both of these are bad already.

 

I just had to put two new interstate batteries in last week. The previous two were interstate batteries and were only 34 months old so yes they can go bad at any time. But should they, no. It is just the way things are. I would change the batteries first. At least have them load tested.

 

going to have to agree with everybody here and say bad batts. if your charging all night and can only crank for 15-30 seconds next morning i gotta say theyre done.

 

You may only have one bad battery, that will kill the other one in no time.

 

Exactly what happened to mine!

 

I think what the above two post are hinting at is to replace both batteries even though one might be bad. Did you charge them and have them load tested yet?
If your voltage is not a minimum of 10.5 volts then the PCM will not give the IDM the signal to fire the injectors. Bad things happen to batteries when they are not used for long periods of time. A week here and 6 days there adds up and they just give up. Keep the next set on trickle charge if you are not going to operate it more than two times a week.

 

"Headed straight for home 1.5 hours headlights on, no issues except SES light still on"

If you had a bad alternator you wouldn't have been able to do this for 1.5 hours. You would've seen increasingly dimmer lights to the point where the voltage wasn't enuff from the batteries and the PCM would'vew shut you down.

As stated above, your batteries are in their death throes. The diesel needs needs a good hard crank in addition to the voltrage necessary to fire the injectors off. Once you do that and by chance the problem persists, come back with more descriptions of what you're experiencing. If it works....come back anyway to provide a final conclusion of your post so others who search and read yours know what the problem was and what solved it for their own info.

I've read many a thread over time trying to gain info for my own problems and read thru 2-5 pages of many posts only to have the thread go cold and not know what the original poster's ultimate solution was making the read a waste of time slowing down my finding a solution or solid direction in which to take.

 

Good point, did not experience any dimming or issues on the 1.5 hr drive home. Current update is I decided to let it sit with the trickle charger on for the last 24 hours. Just went out there tonight, charger showing full charge. Engine started right up and I was able to cycle through the code reader doing running and not running readings, restarting several times with quick cranking starts. SES light no longer on. Only code remaining is the P1298 IDM. That fits with 1FIXITMAN's comment the voltage from the batteries is inadequate effecting the IDM some and throwing the code.

I put the trickle charge back on for tonight and the meter was back down to half charge reading. I'm thinking I'll be ok to drive over to the shop for load test on everything rather than pull the batteries. Working long OT this week so will have to drop it afterhours tomorrow night for the shop to test Wednesday. I'll post an update once the testing is done.
Thanks for all of your comments provided and info I searched in other threads, which.

Heimer77

 

Why take it to a shop? Most auto parts stores will load test batteries for free. In fact, most will remove and replace the batteries if you purchase them but the test is free.

 

Shop tested for free, its where I bought the batteries in 2009 and take all my vehicles and my mechanic is very helpful with giving advice on things to do yourself.

I let the truck sit all week with the trickle charger on and this morning drove it 6 miles over to the shop with no lights and only heater fan on low. Result is alternator is failing only putting out 12.6, and both 850 CCA batteries only putting out 650. Told me the batteries are likely history as a result of the low alternator output. Alternator is OE from 2000. He recommended I first replace the alternator and fully charge the batteries then retest to see if any hope for the batteries. If CCA not back up to spec then replace both. I want to order a high output alt so will start a seach on here for those discussions of where/what to buy.

Thanks for the responses that kept me on the basics. I likely would have wandered down the path replacing sensors responding to false codes I was getting.