Engine Shut Down/Lost Electrical

Driving home this morning the engine died out and all my electrical shut off. This lasted about two seconds, then everything powered back up and the engine came back on and I was able to finish my half hour commute. The key never left the ON position. Any ideas on what happened?

 

EMP gun.





Kidding.. I have no clue.

 

wizards

 

Now we have an "Unintended Deceleration" problem.

 

I didn't know what to do, so I throttled up.

 

If you can answer some questions about your problem, the additional information may help find a solution.
How old is your battery ? Did you hit a bump in the road or do anything unusual while driving ? Was it a sudden power loss, and a sudden return to power ? Has anything else happened since you made your post, has it happened again ?

With a few answers from you and some deducing from the fellow members, a solution will be found. Good Luck.

 

No bumps, just all of a sudden lost all power (engine and electrical) as if I turned the key off. Lasted about two seconds and everything came back on. I don't know how old the battery is, but it is not stock.

 

is your car a manual?

 

Automatic

 

A few ideas:

- Bad battery - go to a shop and ask them to do a load test on the battery
- Bad ignition switch - with the engine running, wiggle the key while it's in the "on" position. If the engine shuts off, you have a bad ignition switch.
- Bad ground somewhere in the electrical system.
- Loose connection on the battery.

 

I'll check the connections and clean them. I thought a car would run with a dead battery as long as its started. It ran without any problems the rest of the trip and I just started it a hour ago with no problems. Weird. Hopefully it doesn't happen out 4x4ing.

 

I don't know if you have the factory alarm with the little red button next to the fog lights, but I had a similar problem. The alarm thought I was stealing my own truck I guess. Disabled everything. Turns out it was a bad battery, even though my battery held a 13+volt and 14 v when running (tested bad at the local auto parts dealer). Probably a bad cell in the battery. Changed it out and worked fine ever since.

Anyway, really don't know if this helps your situation, but if it does I can find the reset alarm sequence in the morning. And to clarify, the sequence wasn't correct in the manual. A 2005 or 2006 model sequence worked for my 2009 truck.
Go figure...

 

This.

Plus check anything at all that has been added aftermarket. Aftermarket stuff causes a lot of weird stuff sometimes. Trailer harness, alarms, stereo systems, dealer added alarm (most don't even realize it's there).

 

So I never figured out why my truck shut down all of a sudden and came back to life and it hasn't happened since. But while driving to work yesterday the airbag light came on and the display for my mileage was flickering from high to low brightness. Once I got to work I shut it down and restarted my truck and all was normal again. WTF. I need to get a smog test done too. So should I wait for a hundred miles or so in case there was a code that needs to clear out of the system?

 

I see you have a 2005. Just to throw this out there> I had a high mileage truck that started showing strange signs ( flickering dash lights, Dropping power etc ). After going through all the wiring on the truck and not finding the problem in any wires I found that the Alternator Slip Rings were worn causing a very intermittent ground. I replaced the Alternator and was good as new again.

 

Just curious, how did you narrow it down to the slip rings in the alternator? That's some impressive troubleshooting, they're hard to get to unless you crack open the alternator.

 

Did you experience a time lapse?

 

Well I tore it part and found where they were visibly worn through causing a Very Intermittent ground.

I then just bought a new one.

 

Not that this has anything to do with your situation, but.........

My truck left me sit one night cuz it wouldn't start. I heard this cracking noise in the dash. I found out later, I had a short/burnt connections at my climate control plug in my dash.

Cleaned things up, added di-electric grease and its been fine since. ????
I did buy a used climate control pod, which I'm using now...

Weirdest thing....to have a short in the dash and the entire truck just fell on its face and wouldn't start. Had my battery & everything tested good the next day at the dealer. That's when I found the burnt connections.