Went to get some food and upon leaving, no start. It tried to turn over but wore out quick and then nothing but a single click from the passenger side engine compartment. All electric worked, though, no issues there. Volts with both batteries hooked to two different vehicles showed 12.9 and 13. Before trying to jump it was showing 12.3.Still, connected to other vehicles it would only click one time as I turned the key.

Under warranty, although Autozone tested them on the spot and found they both were good (100%) and were not supposed to give me new batteries, they switched the batteries as a courtesy.

Still nothing. New Duralast lifetime warranty remanned starter ($200, Autozone) and she's all good. Starts differently, with a smooth type of sound I've never heard before and I'm really impressed.

Now here comes the caught off guard bit, when the truck was first dead myself and my nephew pushed it to a different parking spot from where it had died. He said I left a purple liquid trail. Great. As soon as I drove off I noticed a buzz feel in both the steering wheel and in the brake pedal, the brake fighting my foot, pushing back. With the much needed and appreciated help of Rossi (I hope I spelled that right) throughout all of this I checked my power steering fluid and sure enough it was low. I added Mercon V and instantly the power steering was better than it had ever been but the brake pedal was still weird. Turns out as soon as I left O'Rielly's, where I stopped to buy the atf from, the pedal worked itself out and seems to be even better than before.

I guess my only real questions are 1.) why did the fluid come out when we were pushing the truck, 2.) where did it come from and finally, 3.) how is the power steering fluid connected to the brakes? Rossi told me to pull over immediately as I was about to lose my brakes but I am not understanding how one is connected to the other as it certainly is. The power steering pump is holding the fluid just fine after refilling it, I think. I'll check it again in the morning but...??? Thanks.

and thanks a bunch, Rossi!

 

your p.s. pump supplies oil pressure to your brake booster. as for loosing fluid thats pretty common when turning the steering wheel with engine off.

 

that makes sense. I'm just trying to make sure I'm not about to burst a hose or something. Thanks.

 

Nope, completely normal. You can't turn the wheel back and forth with the engine off and not push the PS fluid out of the rez.

Stewart

 

I was just caught off guard as I've had to push a few of my vehicles in the past and that's never happened. Frightended the heck out of me. Thanks guys! and please send reps to T_D for his continued support of each and every one of us.

 

Wether you like it or not...
We ARE going to educate you about how your truck works...
Just continue to not freak out when quirks show up...

Just to throw it out there...
I have decided to cease doing business with auto zone in observance of the company's position on the 2nd amendment.

 

Yeah, my first starter change out ever. Took me all of maybe 10 minutes to remove the old one and half that time to install the new one. Working on the truck is easiest when you have the correct tools for the job, I'll tell you that much. I liked it, glad it actually happened.

Sucks I have an oil leak still, though, I was covered in that black gold.

 

All the more reason to attend the GTGs. Get to the bottom of it and correct the problem.

 

X2... you can do it! And we are all more than happy to get your leak figured out...

 

Sounds good, guys! I'll do my best.