Hey guys, last night after some snow wheeling, a friend of mine and I went somewhere to get something to eat, when I came out my truck wouldn't start. It acted as though the battery was almost dead or just had a really bad connection. He gave me a jump and I drove it home, however, I noticed that when I turned my headlights on it almost died again. The next morning I needed a jump as well, so after work I had it tested. The battery is fine, the shop charged it and the truck starts on its own now. I did a simple test to see if the alternator was working and it seems to be (read 12volts with car off and 13~14 with it idling). Any one have any idea what the problem could be? I kind of wonder if it really was just a bad conenction to the battery...
Thanks a lot,
Bryan

 

i had a similar problem, turned out to be a bad connection in the terminal/lug. replaced the lug, cleaned up the other one and the posts. now i just need to replace the little battery with an optima!

lee

 

It may be a dead battery. A fully charged battery should read 12.6 volts Here is a quick link. http://www.autobatteries.com/basics/voltage1.asp

 

I had this happen on my truck one time too. I was the positive battery terminal and connector. I just hit it a few times with a wench and it fired up. Eventually I replaced it though. It seemed that it always acted up when i was wheelin around water.

 

A bad connection is what it sounds like. I was gona say mix up some bakingsoda and water and let it sit on the terminals. I had the same problem on my 94' (crud bildup = bad connection). Let the bakingsoda sit and watch it work Just my .02



Craig.

 

just as everybody else said, i think it might be a bad connection too. Cuz last winter my connection went out on me as well. Spent a lot of time and $$ trying to diagnose the problem Ended up just having to replace the clamps and clean the terminals

 

How old is your battery? It may be cheap insurance to replace it if it's more than about 4 years old. I've seen cells recover after a good, "hard" charge, only to fail shortly after.

 

also check the water level in your battery! extreme temps (both cold and hot) will mess with a battery, especialy if it is low on fluid!

 

Sofar it's been doing fine since I cleaned the terminals off. It use to act up before when I was wheelin around water until I replaced the positive battery terminal. I'm thinking it may be time to replace the nagative one as well. The battery isn't very old, I bought it in September because my old battery was dead (it was ancient).

Thanks for the input guys, I'll try cleaning them with baking soda until I can pickup a new negative clamp this weekend.

Edit: oh yeah, the fluid level is good..