OK guys and Gals! My wife called me while on the road and told me the passenger window wouldn't roll back up, and the radio wouldn't come on.

She got home, shut the car off at my request, returned the key to the on position, and rolled the window up. The horn would not work either. I got home shortly after and poked around a bit. I hit the key and it just clicks (like the starter). All of the gauges max-out for a moment and go back to zero. Any help would be appreciated!

The battery is about a year old.

 

the gauges maxing out like that is a sign that when you're cranking the starter it's drawing more juice than the battery can provide and so the computer does a "reset" because it doesn't have enough juice to keep running.

So your wife couldn't roll up the windows with the truck running? That's kinda odd.

I'd say the first place to check is to make sure all the battery cables and connectors are clean and tight.

 

after your conections check the alt. it might be bad. if the battery is low enough the windows will not roll up. it happend to my expy and my son's contour.

 

I'm quite sure the cables are snug and clean. That was the first thing I checked when I popped the hood.

Yes, the window would not roll up when the car was running.

I should have specified that prior to me actually cranking the starter, the guages would max-out and return to zero. I would then try to turn the key to start and it maxes out the gauges again.

I forgot to mention in the initial post that the truck had it's passenger window busted out this past weekend. We had it replaced Monday by a very reputable shop that has replaced another window on the same vehicle for the same reason (damn thief scum).

I think this is just coincidence, but I thought I'd mention it. The window has worked fine all week, and no other problems have shown up until today. I put about 300 miles on it this week without any issues.

If I can get it started, I'm going to check the alternator.

 

The expy's fixed! It was the alternator. I put a reman unit on it from Advance Autoparts. I hope it works out.

I jump started the truck with my little toyota pick-up and drove it to Advance. I shut it off when I got there knowing it would not start back-up under it's own power. The battery gauge was below the indicator marks completely when I was pulling into the parking lot. Of course when I went to crank it for the battery/alternator test, it wouldn't do anything. The replaced the battery at no charge since I did buy it there and it was only a year old. The guy said even if we jumped it, it still would not be strong enough to test the alternator. With the new battery inplace, the test showed the alternator to be completely dead with zero output. I bought the alternator from them and drove the truck home. I had the old one off and the new one on in about 25 min. I love air tools. I returned to the store to get the core refund and the guys thought I was bringing the new one back. I told them that it was the core and they couldn't believe I had done it so fast. It really was easy. I didn't even have to dig thru multiple sockets, just a 10mm and a breaker bar for releasing the belt tensioner. The air ratchet was huge help.

Thanks FTE

Jamie

 

When it was running you can just unhook the positive terminal of the battery, if it dies, its the alternator. Glad you got it fixed.

 

I'm curious, did you ever get the battery warning light on the dash to come on? I had kind of a similar issue this weekend, on the way home from work the battery idiot light came on, however the battery gauge stayed where it's always been. It had all the typical bad alternator signs, slow wipers, dim lights, etc. Stopped by the local auto parts store and the alternator only tested at 12v, so I swapped it out (had the same issue when I came back about 45 minutes later to return the core and he thought I was bringing back the original) and it's been fine since, but I'm just curious why the gauge never moved. I guess 12v is still considered "normal" by the gauge, even though the light came on.