Help! My truck is being weird.

A

AndyMpire

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May 3, 2015
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So my truck has been not starting and I've had to have it junped twice. So I took the batteries and had them tested. 1 good, 1 bad. So I replaced bad one with matching partner of good one.

I connect them. Driver side battery positive terminal sparks and smokes and truck doesn't even try to start.

So I disconnect driver battery.

Truck starts.

Driver side terminals are old and gross. I'm going to replace them.

I checked the fuses next to battery, they looked good.

Are the terminals my only issue? Or is something else going on? When it doesn't start it doesn't even try it just clicks. When it does start it fires as normal. I'm not good with wiring but I have friend who are however our schedules don't mesh well. Any thoughts? Truck is a 99' 207k 4x4 w/ ac
 
Is the driver side battery the old one? Not all battery testers find bad cells.
 
Let me rephrase the question: which location is the brand new battery in?
 
Driver side. It's still doing what it was prior to replacing it. I also placed into the other side and it made no difference.
 
I take it the smoking terminal wasn't an issue prior to replacing the batteries?
 
It was I figured it was due to corrosion. So I cleaned it up a bit. However the wires are clearly corroded in between the individual wire strands that are exposed. It looks like turquoise toothpaste. Which is what I would assume is the issue?. However I'm asking just in case anyone has had the same issue and it was something more major than replacing battery terminals.
 
I would definitely inspect your battery cables.* Common problem is the crossover cable will become damaged and cause an overcharging condition.* Mine was the crossover cable about an inch or two from the terminal on the driver's side positive crimp terminal. You could see corrosion working its way from the driver's side positive terminal down through the crossover cable.

To test this hook up a jumper cable from drivers positive to passenger positive. If it fixes problem it's the cable. If not you likely have a bad battery.

If stumped you can also drive truck to most large chain parts stores and they will test everything with their digital tester which should help isolate the issue based on results. They will have you run through a number of tests as commanded by the tester.
 
If the cables are as bad as you say you might as well replace them anyways. Corrosion loves to find its way inside of wires. They love to kill new batteries as well.
 
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