Battery Mysteriously Died: Turning on Headlights Kills Electrical System After Jump Start

Thought about that too.

 

my 95 toyota had a weird connection loose in the wires. I cleaned the post and cable connections and the only thing that helped was bending the battery cables. I never cut them open to see what the problem was but something was amiss, then after I flexed the cables I never had another problem with it.

 

I'm going to clean them even though they look ok. Like @mechanicjon said, eliminate the possibilities.

 

Corrosion isn't your problem. Not saying I what what is but by the looks in that pic it is not

 

my dads truck corroded in the actual wire, couldn't see it until he stripped it back as his terminals were fine, seeing as your in Sacramento it could be that? It has to be some sort of wiring issue if your truck runs perfect, then wont click or turn over.

 

Not saying it's not electrical saying by that pic it's not corrosion. Looks super clean. Look at where it grounds to the chassis. Are the terminals on tight?

 

just offering ideas, the issues hes having seem sporadic. If he had like an alternator issue he wouldn't be able to start the truck today, especially if the battery drained on the way home due to it not being recharged by a faulty alternator, but on the flip side he wouldn't be able to start it without a jump today due to the battery being drained f4rom the drive home. , or starter issue the accessories would all come on, but you would hear a click near where the starter is as it wouldnt enagage or could be missinbg teath on the gear. That makes me feel like it Has to be an electrical issue and not mechanical.... i wish you the best of luck i feel like this is going to be a witch hunt

 

That looks clean were you can see. I've been bitten before working on cars. It's not hard to clean. If your taking battery to be tested then wallla clean them then.

 

I've seen this before to. ^^^^
usually when it does that the cable will have a swelled spot in it.

 

You can all line up to kick me in the ass if this ends up being the issue.

When I took that photo above, I discovered the ground terminal was a little loose. Not so loose that it moved freely, but loose enough that I could turn it with a little effort. Seems like it would still make enough contact to provide an adequate ground though, no? And it would have been like that for months.

Anyway. I tightened it so it doesn't move.

 

OP you have to put a meter on that, test the battery then the alternator. if they check out check the draw on the starter.

 

Where are you saying to clean the

hmmmm.... I think I said this earlier.... hope it was that easy. And yes, if loose that could have been it.

 

Still sounds like the battery. The alternator looks good at 14.2 but a bad battery might have internal resistance that just shows under load. Catch it just right and it fires right up and runs fine from there on the alternator. Anything over what the alternator can supply and it dies. Get it checked, you can ruin your alternator(or so I've been told).

 

Going to get the battery checked now.

 

Everything looks good according to the O'Reilly guy, and I haven't had any issues since tightening that terminal.

One step closer to that ass kickin'.

 

Lol Im only a couple hours out. I'll be there with my work boots in no time

 

Give me a few days to be sure it was that. And I get to down a few beers first to ease the pain (and humiliation).


Part of me wants it to be the loose a terminal and part of me doesn't because I don't like wasting people's time. I blame my own ignorance.

 

Lol it's all good, that's what these forums are for

 

Pulling out my biggest steel toed boot! Might even shine them up.
It's all good

 

Haha I got my MatterHorns at the ready lol