I hate this truck..I`ve put more money into it than I have my kids first year of college!

Anyways,my wife has been driving it without much problems,other thanthe 4 wheel drive wanting to engage when you accelerate hard,the check engine light being on from a bad IAC valve and half the doors being stuck locked.

Yesterday she went to work,no problem.Truck started right up.Came home from work,no problem,started up.Went to go to the store,truck wont even turn over!

It has a security system that requires you push a button on the keyless entry to unlock the truck/disengage the system.That acts as it always has,but the truck still wont turn over.The battery is strong and has been charged to retry,butt he engine still wont crank.
Any ideas?

 

When you try and start it, do hear any sounds (such as clicking) coming from the engine compartment? It sounds like it could be a bad cable going to either the solenoid or the starter, or the solenoid or starter could be bad. Try jiggling the cables from the battery to the solenoid.

 

Clean the battery contacts. if you know how check the resistance on the electrical system going to the starter. Also load test and check the voltage of your battery. I would say with 99% certainty you have a bad battery or starter. Low voltage/high amperage systems like cars are funny, very different from 120VAC systems.

 

If it's the starter, you may tap on it and it will go. If it does, replace the starter very soon. This trick only works a few times. First though, check the solenoid/Starter relay on the fender. If you do not hear a click, it is probably not working. That could be due to a bad solenoid, a blown fuse (Make sure you check your fuses), a loose or broken wire, or a bad ignition switch.

 

OK,heres the deal..if you let it sit and cool down,it starts right up..but drive it a few mile and it does the no start thing again. When you try to start it,it gets nothing..no noise or anything..all the lights and gauges work,but acts as though its sending no power to the starter.

 

Like jerry sez it could be a flaky starter relay. It's under the hood drivers side fender. If you get voltage from the ignition switch on the red/light blue wire but the relay doesnt close, replace it.

Other 2 wires at the relay are black and red.

 

zook, do the starter relay first, thinking it's around 10 to 12 bucks. You can jump across the starter relay to see if it starts. If it does then the relay is bad, if not it's the starter.

 

If and when you jump across the relay / solenoid, use something heavy. It'll be pulling up to a couple of hundred amps if the starter pulls in. It all sounds like the relay, but it could be the starter failing after it gets hot as well. Relay/solenoid is cheaper and quicker to check. I don't have pics of the relay on a '98, but here are some on a '92. They are similar.

 

Thanks guys..will check it out in the morning!

 

OH MY GOD!!!! I have never seen such a gross negative battery terminal. And what is that, bird crap on the top of the battery?

I like your advice but have you done any routine maintenance on your truck?

Seriously though - how do you get a picture to post like that. I've tried bu been unsuccessful. The thread directions I saw make it look like you have to point to a server and can't upload from your own hard drive. Let me know and I'll send a few pictures of a well maintained 93 with 168K on it.

 

Actually, I think it's a couple of acorns he has there on the battery. They get into everything in the southeast along with leaves and pine needles.

Zonk - if your battery terminals look like Jerry's or worse, that's probably you problem.

Jerry - I know, you took the picture right before you cleaned that battery terminal up. You just took the picture to show Zonk what a corroded terminal looks like. Right??

 

When I took the pic, the car had been setting up for a few months, and some squirrels had decided to make a snack bar area in the engine compartment (you got it Texan, those are remnants of white oak acorns). I live in a rural area (thank the good Lord). And yeah, I have used the pic to show what corrosion looks like on a battery.

Jharger, you are correct, to post a pic you must reference a server. However, the nice folks here at Ford-Trucks.com have provided an area where you can upload pics and they even have a link to press to give you the URL encoding to reference the images in your post. Start by clicking on the "User CP" option on the menu at the top of this thread. Then go into the "Gallery" area, and then you'll need to Create a gallery and upload your pics. I'm not sure what the upload limit is, but since they've been nice enough to provide this without charge, I do try not to tie up too much bandwidth and I've only put up pics that I use to help give people instructions (like I did above). And yes as previously mentioned, sometimes pictures of potential problems are more useful to people trying to figure out a problem than those of pristine conditions.

 

I'll give it a try. Can't see nothing but text while you're creating the post. Thanks for the insight.

 

Good, I see it worked. As to the only being able to see text, if you click the Go Advanced button you can preview your post or reply as it would look, including image references and URLs.

 

JHarger,

Nice Explorer but my god man - what is that red thing doing in your garage??