Serious Electric Failure.

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2thoufivenine

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Jul 23, 2013
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Ive had my 2000 5.9 with an auto trans. for a while now, bought it from an old farmer. over the years I've had a few common issues vp 44, cam sensor, tranny issues, so the norm. this morning i went to start it and it was cranking over then just died, now none of the interior lights or any thing comes on at all, i mean anything its completely dead. i checked all fuses everything is in order there, so i plugged in the battery charger to try and get it goin, the batteries would not take a charge. still nothing. I got a friend of mine to come over with a volt meter, when the batteries are plugged in they read 15 MV. i now have the batteries hooked on the same charger out of the truck and they are now taking a charge, these batteries are interstate batteries bought within the last sixty days. has anyone ever heard of a truck cranking over then just completely nothing at all. I've phoned the place where i bought the batteries the guy told me it, MAY have cooked or blown one of them, but for a surge or something like that to blow both or damage them would have to be fairly serious. any thoughts. the truck was running fine yesterday.
 
It also has a remote starter on it that was used to crank it over in above post. it was not cranked manually.
 
it was -25*C but thats everyday here, never had an issue with it not starting in cold let alone not having any power what so ever I'm absolutely stumped. i can't find anything on the net. called a few shops around here. they all have said never heard of anything like this. I'm at a loss. this is a work truck as well so kind of urgent to get it going.
 
If its got a couple of relays hanging off the firewall near the hydroboost area check them. I had some weird chit happen when one of them failed this fall.
 
The remote start could have died, this would kill the start circuit until it's removed. A possibility is the main fuse in the PDC under the hood, if you are not getting any voltage there it would be the culprit. Follow your battery leads back to it, there is a fusible link that they hook into, Check for voltage on both sides. Also look at all of your hot cables and make sure one is not going to ground somewhere. Use a meter and ohm them out as well as checking for continuity to ground.

Electricity is just like water, it has to have a path to follow to get anywhere, just start following the path of the cables and checking connections. With it being very cold, the voltage available drops and the amp load goes up. High amp loads will find the weak point quick!!
 
Guys do you think it could have just been his battery cables?? It sounds like that to me. Did you try wiggling you battery cables after it went completely dead?? Could have just been they needed cleaning is all. Possible guys??
 
I've had this issue, but I didn't have a remote start. I'd remove the remove start first to verify it's not that.

My issues were first the battery cables were broken and then the PCM. I've had the fusible link blow before, but that only caused an electrical fire from my trailer brake controller and I wasn't able to charge.
 
okay so this morning i went to hook in the batteries. and the starter jumped when i hooked the battery back up. have now disconnected the remote start and still the same thing. I'm thinking the starter relay has something to do with it. is this possible for a relay do do something like this? I've followed all wires from battery to distribution centre everything is in order double checked fuses. everything is good. I'm just inside hear quick for a warm still cold outside. I'm going to pull the relay for the starter and hook the batteries back in. and see what happens thanks for the advice boys. appreciate it.
 
stuck relays will send power out, it's common in the industry I work in.
 
whitneyj said:
stuck relays will send power out, it's common in the industry I work in.
Click to expand...

I totally agree. Like I said earlier I had some weird chit happen with a faulty relay. I could pull the key out of the truck yet have all the idiot lights in the dash light up just like the key was in and turned on.
 
Well I ended up telling him to hit the starter with a hammer seems he found the issue there.


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Problem solved. it was narrowed down to the relays sending power to the starter. and kept trying to crank it over. for some weird reason i had always thought that once a relay went it was done, never thought that it could glitch. I'm going to get the remote starter looked at on saturday, the boys who installed it, said it may have been the cause of the relay doing weird stuff. once again thanks for all the input gave me somewhere to be looking for the issue.
 
Relays will weld themselves closed, see it fairly often in industrial stuff.
 
It is more common, yes, but also see it in high usage applications, more commonly on DC systems. Take a relay, cycle it 30 million times in a year, stuff happens LOL
 
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