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So, I've never heard of anyone having this issue, and it's a wierd one, but maybe someone here can help?
On my 2001 Limited 5.4L 4x4, I am having a problem that I hope I can get a little hand with. This morning I went to start it, and get a loud CLICK and the power cuts out, truck is completely dead. Figured well maybe something is loose at battery. Looked at both terminals both on tight and no corrosion or dirt. I just barely touch the positive cable right behind the terminal, and I hear the key dinger come on. Go to start same thing, so I take the car to work. Get home today and it does the same thing. I have no idea, so I look around underneath, the front of the starter does look pretty nasty, but not sure it would be causing the power to cut out. Look at solenoid, one of the nuts is a little rusty, but I don't think that is the issue. Jiggle the positive terminal again, power comes on, it starts right up like nothing ever happened. Turn it off, it starts right back up again. Now I suspect at some point it's just going to never start again and just keep cutting out, but does anyone have any clue? I tried looking for the ground points for positive, but don't see any? (I am clueless when it comes to vehicle electronics) I see the negative ground, it is not rusty and is secure I can't make it budge. Could it be that somewhere in the positive cable itself it has corroded and I just can't see it? I have not even a kindergarten understanding of vehicle electronics. I wired up a CB once (not in this truck) and I felt like Nikola Tesla
The starter, this looks bad, but would it be able to make power cut? Bad photo of solenoid. That nut is rusty and a little green... the one under the rubber cap is still shiny. Top of battery, both posts are on solid and I see nothing wrong...
Any help? I am 99% sure that the click it makes is coming from the starter solenoid. It's got 200k miles of Midwest roads, and the starter solenoid/starter are original. It has never done anything like this before, nor have I ever had a vehicle do this before, I am in the dark
I think you answer is your positive terminal.
I'd loosen the POS battery terminal saddle and clean the lead connector, and metal/copper(?) saddle plates with a dremel brush ,or steel wool. It never hurts to do the same for all questionable connections. Then add an anti corrosion product to all connections.
Those clamp-style connections are well-known to corrode where they touch the bare wire, and worse, they allow moisture to travel up the wire and corrode internally. You can try taking the clamp off the positive wire and cleaning as mentioned, but if it were mine, I'd price the OEM positive and ground cables and replace them if affordable (!) *regardless* of whether that is the actual problem or not.
It can also be the battery itself. The same thing happened to me once where the terminal became loose inside the battery. Everything was tight but when I wiggled the post, weird stuff happened. New battery and no more issues. But yeah it could absolutely be the cables too.
.... Any help? I am 99% sure that the click it makes is coming from the starter solenoid. It's got 200k miles of Midwest roads, and the starter solenoid/starter are original. It has never done anything like this before, nor have I ever had a vehicle do this before, I am in the dark
With that many miles and corrosion it's probably time to go thru all the battery/starter cables.
Especially those open ended cables, they can corrode up inside the casing.
I like the marine battery posts which use cables with lug ends.
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