Today I was out driving and everything was working fine, the runner was running great. I drove home to pick something up and got back in it and turned the key and nothing happened. It spit out the cd from the deck, but thats it, no clock nothing electrical came on and the engine wouldn't start. I figured ill give it a few minutes and check it again... nothing.

So now im lost, I don't know what to do, or even if anybody here can help me out since electrical problems are such a pain. But I figure its worth a shot. I'm calling an electrical shop tomorrow and have it towed over there and hopefully I can get it fixed.

 

What have you checked?

Could even be a loose battery terminal.

 

Did you get your battery checked? It can also be that your alternater went out and killed it. Check you battery terminals for a good connection.

 

^x2^ check those out then go from there

 

Alright, I went out and did my best to figure out what it is. All I came up with is it almost seems like the battery doesn't have enough power. I took it all apart, made sure there was still power in the battery, cleaned off all the metal in there with a wire brush and put it all back together.

When I turned it on, all the electrical came on inside, but when I tried to start the engine all the power turned off again and I couldn't get it to start back up. When I don't have the key in, the door panel lights are lit but flicker, and the buzzer also seems like its trying to pull out power, but can't. When I turn the car on though, the lights and the buzzer stop.

I'm hoping im painting a good enough picture to at least narrow it down.

 

Bump, I know its still fresh on the list. But im hoping to get some idea before I hit the sack, so I don't have to pay to get it towed and worked on tomorrow.

 

take your battery and have it tested

 

hmmm faulty ground on the body or block maybe? or bad battery cable?

 

I always start with a brand new battery if I have trouble like this. Batteries can short out inside and give all kinds of strange problems like this. Especially if you off road the truck at all.

Batteries are cheap. Go get a new one and see what happens. I wouldn't pay anyone to look at it until I at least changed the battery, checked the cables and got the alternator checked in that order.

 

Kyle, i have a practically new battery that you can use to see if thats the problem...heck i'll even sell it if you need it. I also have today (Thursday) off and could bring it by in the afternoon/evening.
I'm no expert but theres a couple other things i would check such as the connection at your starter. Electrical shops are mad $$$!
936-7179

 

Another possibility is the starter could be going bad (brushes/contacts) which is a relatively easy fix (except for pulling the starter out!)

 

well, its too wide for me to really do anything. I went and had the battery checked and it was good. So I'm just going to take it to a shop, cause I need it to be working by tomorrow.

 

Did you get it fixed yet?

 

i had the same problem with my first gen. Oddly enough when I loosened the connections ot the batter yterminal it worked jsut fine. I cleaned them off and secured it, but not too tightly and haven't had a problem since. When I had a second gen this would happen from time to time as well. I would just take a wrench and bang on the battery terminals a few times and it would fire right up. I guess I jsut got weird corrosion.