When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
So been trying to search for an answer and to no avail, haven’t found anything. So as I was driving yesterday, I went to turn and my dash lights flickered then I lost all power. Tried turning my key and I got nothing, no lights, no response. My flashers didn’t work nor my headlights. Got a tow home and as that’s happening, all my lights turn back on, we pull over and I turned my key and it cranked and started. Come to today, I get in and go down to my local gas station and fuel up. After done fueling, I started it and saw my lights flicker for a second and I slammed my door and it shut off and lost power again. Batteries are good, no fuses blown but if I rock the van the right ways enough times, I get a flicker of dash lights when I turn my key. I’m wondering if I have a bad ground somewhere or something like that. Any advice is appreciated
You have a loose wire connection somewhere--it will not repair itself and quite possibly completely fail and just not start again until its found and repaired.
I would start with the larger wires connected to the battery terminals including the ground cable. A quick look won't necessarily find something, you'll have to physically try moving them to see if they're the problem.
Since you lose all power my guess is one of the battery cables.
So I went through and cleaned my connections, checked where my positives go and found out my second battery on the frame was sucking away some power. Disconnected it and now when I turn my key, sometimes I get 7 seconds of my dash lights being on and my battery gauge going up, but it jitters as it does. When I try cranking it when it does this, everything shuts off again. I also don’t get anything if I have my foot on the brake. Where shall I go from here? And I will say this now, I am by no means a wiring guy, I hate this stuff but deal with it when I have too.
So messaged with stuff for a bit and actually hard reset the PCM, that gets it to crank but I got it to fire, drive for about 1.5 miles then it died while driving again. Now I’m sitting here, did a hard reset again but now it sounds like it’s not getting fuel. I don’t know what’s going on at this point.
Do you have any guages? Forscan or a scanguage? A mulmeter?
Is your cel on? With your reset it may have erased codes.
Dont let the corner parts place scan it...your diesel doesnt speak the same language.
You should start with good charged batteries. A multimeter can confirm this.
Don’t have any tools, I’m quite literally working with the bare minimum. Had a guy bring out his multimeter last night and the under the hood battery read at 12.8v. Didn’t test the secondary battery on the rail however. No CEL on either.
I’m confused…you’re saying you loose all power like the batteries are disconnected??? My van is a 2000….front battery grounds at the engine, passenger side front…the rear battery grounds by the starter, remove, wire brush, replace…if you have add on battery terminals don’t forget to disassemble and clean where the cable is sandwiched on to them…
to lose all power is odd…one battery, often the rear , is been neglected and non functional for awhile ..it don’t make sense for 2 batteries to go completely dark at the same time …a charging trick I use is to remove the positive cable ,front battery…hook 1 charger directly to battery, the other charger to (isolated) positive cable and (any) negative and you can charge both batteries separately…a SMART chargers reaction could be a tell….
Two batteries could be one is bad and dragging down the other. Had that happen in a dual battery Diesel Suburban halfway into a 700 mile trip. Lost electricals indicated by slamming out of overdrive. Engine didn’t need electricity to keep going but I had read losing the electric lift pump can overheat the injection pump or something like that so I didn’t risk pushing on. Pulled over to check and couldn’t restart. Thankfully diagnosed the bad battery before the engine cooled and just got it restarted on the good battery.
Ummm…..maybe….but then again he regained power through movement = things shifting = possible vibration = loose and or dirty connections…like someone previously said a quick look won’t cut it…
I just remembered…the battery cable also goes to a solenoid…kinda hidden behind the front battery…on the inner fender wall….remove the battery and clean those terminals also….the yellow feed comes from the alternator through fuseable links
Quigley that's all great advice. Excellent points. And with 12.8v his topside battery is good.
Would a bad terminal or even a bad battery kill his truck? Im wondering if he has a bad ignition switch.
Ive had my alternator fail while i was driving my 7.3 truck. And the truck didn't die. My lights dimmed including the dash lights. Shifting became goofy while i drove it to a parts store. I let it idle in the parking lot while i bought a new one. Drove the truck home and swapped it in the garage. I had to drive slow w dim headligts. Both of my batteries were dead/very low so i had to charge them. I charged overnight and was fine the next morning.
The normal 7.3 stuff cps, 42 pin connector, idm etc. A bad cps will kill the motor but you still have dash lights. Same with a bad idm. You can remove the pcm and still have dash lights.
On second thought a very bad terminal or very corroded could kill it. Its like disconnecting the ground. Gotta be this or ignition switch or wire.
All good points…just want him to not to take any short cuts…do it all…I love to do one step at a time to be sure of what it is but this is to intermittent and inconvenient when it goes out…..ummm and he did say “no flashers”…they work regardless of ignition position…I believe the only reason why they would not is no battery power
Thank you guys for the advice but still nothing, I cleaned the top battery connections, the solenoid on the inner fender wall connections, underneath the grounds looked good and gave them a good cleaning. I have no way of actually testing the voltage of the underneath battery so I hooked up some jumper cables to the positive for the bottom one and the ground and slapped the other positive side jumper cable against some metal and it produced some good sparks. I’m still getting little blips of power when I turn the key and every once in awhile if I let the key sit in the off position and turn it, I get dash lights and everything but then it dies again. I don’t know if I can remove the bottom battery due to how rusted it is, but I was also wondering, could all my problems be caused by a bad connection the my PCM? Would it be worth to check it? Sorry if I’m all over the place, I just want to get this thing to work
Hey guy…if your description is accurate, I still lean towards the batteries…not the charge but the transfer of the power to your van….I keep reading your last post…did you disconnect the negatives and clean or just look and wire brush the bolt heads?? It even happens to me…2 weeks ago I half assed it…I was cold, tired and skipped good practices….I made more work for myself in the end…I finally had to buckle down because it was an emission code and my inspection was up 11/30…anyway enough of me…someone correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t believe the PCM can kill everything, yeah, no….no pcm….sounds like you have limited tools…maybe try your jumper cables on your negative terminals to a clean spot on the frame or engine block…..let us know …good luck
Has your starter been replaced recently?..??…..is it loose??…is the positive cables on it clean?? How long have you owned this truck??…sorry…I get crazy when I can’t be hands on….I just moved my under hood battery to the frame….and making all new cables….
