The battery died in the excursion when I left the radio on. recharged the battery and went to start it. The window, stero (except to eject cd) does not work. ALso does not register miles on the odomenter.

Checked all the fuses and everything looks okay.

Thought it could be the accessory delay relay, but when I went to the part store they showed there was also an accessory power relay. But they of course did not have the part and the dealer was closed.

Is it likely to be the relay and if it is the accessory power relay, where is that located.

Thanks in advance.

 

i had the same problem on my 01 limited v10 4x4. after you charged the battery, did the truck start up? mine did. then i drove home with no speedo and no windows or radio, shut the truck off and immediately tried to start the truck back up again--completely dead. yet the dash volt gauge showed that it was charging normally. installed a new battery, and everything works perfect. its funny how things act when you have a battery that is discharged or sulphated. believe me, install a new battery and the truck will be perfect.

 

thanks, that did the trick. I had convinced myself it was something else and I was wrong.

 

If the battery is in otherwise good condition (not too old, no cracks, not bounced around too much off-road) then you can recondition it with a good charger (which costs about the same as good battery...)
One of the newer smart chargers will pulse the sulfate off the battery plates and charge even a battery that's been fully discharged. You might need to charge it in paralel with another battery if it's really dead.
Other than mechanically broken batteries (or chemically damaged dry cells) almost any battery will come back. That said, batteries just don't live much past four or five years even under ideal conditions. I've had Odyssey batteries last that long but they all seem to die sooner or later. As a rule of thumb, if you can keep a battery's "start of charge" above 80% of capacity (hard to guess, I know) then it will last (and perform, especially in terms of cranking amps) a lot longer. But if other systems in the electrics are suffering (parasitic discharge, partial leaks to ground, weak starter motor or an engine that's hard to start or a high compression engine that needs to crank a lot before firing, the heat induced in the battery will shorten it's life.)

It's a mistake to think that a dual battery system in a diesel is back-up or protection or safety margin. By having two batteries, the working load is so much less that both batteries last a lot longer despite having to charge glow plugs and potentially crank a very high compression, very high displacement engine for a long time using a potentially very inefficient start motor (that is itself designed to survive the punishment but does so by drawing a lot of current.)

At least, I think so.

 

as far as batteries that don't last.....i have an optima red top that is in my racecar now that i bought in 1994. (that is the battery in 1994, and the car in 1992). and believe it or not, it still fires right up. oh, i do keep a trickle charger on it at all times except while at the track.. but, the battery is still 12 years old. kinda makes you believe that optima batteries are really worth the money.