The other day my entire electrical system died on me. Nothing electrical worked at all, not even the underhood light. I went through and cleaned the battery connections, had the battery tested, but didn't find anything wrong. It has done this type of thing before I believe since a couple of times when I got in my radio presets and clock were reset. It has also died in a drive through at the bank, but started up right away afterwards. This was the first time that it didn't immediately start afterwards.

When I was messing with stuff, the underhood light would flash on and off several times like a relay was resetting and tripping. Since I thought it might be a battery issue, I disconnected the battery cables and jumped it directly from another vehicle. When I did this it started right up. I then took the battery in and they said there was nothing wrong with the battery.

I'm wondering if there is a major relay or fuse that is going bad, or should I spend the money and get a new battery? It seems to me to be some type of relay or fuse issue since it has happened before. Also it has been real cold like below zero here in SD and it has had no trouble starting when it is cold out.

Thanks for the help
Tim

 

corrosion around a fusable link? Also might be some moisture in the firewall connector plates.

The other thing I'd check is the negative battery cable. If the entire system dies at once, the only thing which could cause that (outside of a bad battery) would be dirty negative connection from the battery to the frame. Since the truck has multiple positive feeds off of the postive post, the entire system probably wouldn't fail at once.

Just my thoughts.

 

I have to agree with Im1d, there is nothing short of a bad connection with the ground or positive where it attaches to the battery or a bad battery. On your ground, check where it connects to the battery and also where it attaches to the block. There are no solenoids or fuses that could cause such a problem. A solenoid would only cause problems with what it controls, not the entire electrical system.

 

I cleaned both the battery cable connections well and sprayed them with some anticorrosion spray. I'll check where the negative connects to the block. Can someone tell me where it connects to the block? This must be the problem since when I connected it to another car, everything seemed to work just fine.
Thanks
Tim

 

How did you connect it to another car. Did you just hook the battery cables to jumper cables, or did you hook the negative to the trucks block and the positive to the battery cable. To see where it connects to the block follow the negative wire down to where it bolts to the block.

 

This is a long shot but i was having having trouble with my truck similar to yours when i bought it. I went to check out the cable to the battery and on the negative on the inside of the loop you could see where the plating had been burned off at one time. Most likely the cable was loose so the electricity was looping and burning the plating. Put on a new connection at its fine now. You prob already checked this out but just in case.

 

If it isnt a bad ground, it may be a large fuse on the firewall near the battery. If it is an intermittant problem it probably isnt the fuse itself but maybe the connection there. Follow the positive cable to where it connects on the firewall.

 

When I hooked it up to another vehicle, I disconnected both cables and hooked them up to jumper cables then to the other vehicle. I took the 175 amp fuse that is on the firewall off, it looked like there might have been a little rust on it, so I cleaned that off real well and put it back together. Hoping I found the problem. I still need to check where the negative connects to the block.
Thanks
Tim

 

When you hooked it to the other truck, you either moved the wires enought to make a good connecting where ever the short is or your battery is bad. There are no fuses that I can think of that will shut off everything in a truck. Usually either the lights will work and no starter. As you can see there are a few wires on the positive side going to different components. No one fuse protects all of them. I am leaning toward the battery but really check on the ground wire. Does the wire feel harder or less flexible in certain areas than others? Is there a lot of corrosion somewhere, or was there a lot of corrosion before you cleaned the negative terminal?

 

There was some corrosion there, but didn't seem to be a huge amount though. I'll take another look at the ground wire. It was hard to tell if the wire had any bad spots since it was cold out and the entire wire was pretty stiff.
Thanks
Tim

 

Another thought how old is your battery? Most batteries lifespan is about 5 years, give or take a little on how well they are treated and in what type of conditions they are used in.

 

I was on a long road trip a few months back. I stoped for gas and the truck would not start. Flat out dead. Someone gave me a jump. Truck fired right up. About and hour later i was putting up the drivers side window ( power window ) and when it reach the top a bussing sound came from the dash. I put the window down and back up same buzz and this time i noticed the amp guage spike. Few more mile down the road the truck would just die for about a second and come right back. So i am thinking great major problem. Stop at a motel for the night and sure enough next day no start. So call AAA, guy come out truck fires right up. The AAA guys says battery. Stop had the battery tested, just showed low voltage. The alt was putting out the right amount. Long story short it was the battery.