Help!! Total Electrical Failure

Edit: Problem solved! diagnosis: dirty/loose battery terminals. Thanks everyone for your help!!

I just got back to the house after running some errands. I noticed that the light on the garage door opener was burnt out, so I back halfway into the garage and jump in the bed to change it out. I get back into the truck, turn the key and it made a weird noise and then everything went dead. I popped the hood to see if anything was out of the ordinary and it all looked good. I get back into the truck and some lights came on, I tried to start it again and it went totally dead again. I disconnected the battery and reconnected and still nothing.

Any ideas?

I just passed the 3 year mark but it only has 32K miles.

 

Characteristics of a short somewhere. Do you smell any burning plastic, rubber, or a sulfur-like smell?

 

Check the ground cable on the battery. I had a terminal broken one time where it was hard to detect

 

Thanks for the quick response guys, I'll check those real quick!

 

Battery voltage? Battery voltage when you turn on the headlights or try to start it?

 

@ Luder94 no burning smells

@ cottontop I checked the fuses and they all look good. I checked the ground cable and it looked good, not exactly sure what it's supposed to look like. But I connected my jumper cables to the negative terminal on the battery and checked other grounded areas in the engine compartment and don't get any sparks.

@ max I checked the battery voltage and it's showing 12.6

I wiggled some fuzes around and wiggled the positive terminal on the battery and the lights interior lights come on, but whenever I try to start it, everything goes dead

 

I checked the voltage and it's showing 12.6 with everything off. 12.5 when the parking lights on, 12.1 with headlights on (HID Projectors), and it drops to 0.6 when I try to start it

 

Possibly a bad batt or starter. Starter shouldnt pull battery down like that

Hit the starter with a hammer. Try jumper cables

 

Did you clean the terminals and re clamp them tight?

If they are dirty or loose at all it will make it seem like a dead battery. And check the main ground that goes right to the frame.

Turn on your head lights. Then try to start the truck. If your lights are one before you turn the key and then go off when you turn the key then back on after you let the key go that is a classic terminal problem.

 

For shits and giggles try to jump start it, theres other threads on here about the tacos going haywire when the factory batteries die

 

Your battery is most likely toast.

 

Are you checking directly on the battery terminals or on the clamps?

 

I'm gonna say battery also. Mine gave out without a warning at about 5yrs/50k. Jump it and see what happens.
Edit: when mine went out I got in and everything was normal, dome light came on. I turned the key and the dome light died...instrument cluster dimmed and then went out completely. Installed a new battery and all was good. It had never been draggy or showed any signs that it was dying, but rather just died all the sudden.

 

The weird noise you heard was probably the starter solenoid clattering as the battery didn't have enough juice to pull it in and hold it.

Again to chime in dead battery.

 

Utard is the winner!! It was a problem with the terminals. If you are ever in SD let me know and I'll buy you a beer!

I cleaned the terminals with a wire brush and wiped them off with a rag and tightened the clamps all the way and it worked like a charm.

Tomorrow, I'll take it to Autozone/Advanced/O'Reiley's and get the battery and alternator tested.

Thank you everyone for your help!

 

Spray

$9 Permatex 80370 Battery Protector and Sealer, 5 oz. net Aerosol Can

http://www.amazon.com/Permatex-8037...34730&sr=8-5&keywords=battery+terminal+grease

Terminal grease

$14 AGS BT1 Battery Terminal Protector Pouch

http://www.amazon.com/American-Grea...34730&sr=8-3&keywords=battery+terminal+grease

felt pads

$10 Schumacher BAF-TTC Zinc-Plated Top Terminal and Post Washer Set

http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-BA...r=8-3-fkmr0&keywords=battery+terminal+scraper

scraper

Just don't get carried with this tool you can take off too much lead if you go over board with it.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_...i_sku=SPM2092195003&sid=IDx20130125xMPTLSx025

 

When you said this in your first post, most figured that you made sure they were tight and clean...

 

Glad you got it solved.

 

FWIW you can do a voltage drop test on both positive and negative posts to the terminals and it can help you in situations like this.

Take your multi meter and set it to a 12 or 20 volt scale.

Take your red probe and put it on the positive post, take your black probe and put it on the positive terminals. You should see almost no voltage drop. Like 0.0 .2 and you've got a pretty bad drop, anything higher and you get problems like this.

You can do the same exact thing for the negative post and terminal.

As well as - post to engine block ground or body ground or + post to starter etc... or really anywhere.

Shows a lot of good voltage drop tests:

http://www.taurusclub.com/forum/98-...w-articles/135793-slow-no-crank-how-test.html

 

Sorry, I should have been more specific. When I "disconnected the battery" I took off the negative clamp and put it back on. The problem was with the positive terminal/clamp. And I've never had to clean my terminals before. I guess I'm still an electrical novice. But I'm glad I learned something with the help of TW and others can use this for troubleshooting in the future.