Completely dead electrical.

I went to start my Tacoma after coming out of the store today. Turn the ignition on, push in the clutch, go to crank the engine. The starter engages, and immediatelly ALL electrical in my truck is dead. Nothing. The only hint of life is a weak, weird chime when the key is in the ignition with the door open.

Nothing comes to life on the dash, no lights, no horn, no power locks even. It would seem to me that I blew a fuse somewhere, but I cannot find anything that looks like a main fuse. I saw a 30AMP in the upper right of my interior fuse-block, all other fuses check out clean. I could not access the 30amp, as it needs pliers to get to, and I did not have any on me.

So, luckily I was only about 2 miles from home and walked. I'll gather up some pliers and my multi-meter and try to figure this out.

If you guys have any ideas or suggestions, let me know.

 

I believe there is a 100 or 120 amp main fuse somewhere in there. My brothers 01 did the same thing a few weeks back after he crossed his jumper cables It was a $5 fix, luckily.

 

That's kind of what I suspect. Why do cars break on cold, cold days when you're sick! Can never happen on a nice week-day, when you have the day off, the sun is shining, and auto-parts stores are open....

 

What ^ that guy said. You could start by grabbing the cables and if you can spin the clamp at all on the battery, it may be your problem.

If they twist, spin them back and forth a little. Your truck should start and you can clean and tighten the clamps at home.

 

If you haven't replaced a battery in five or six years you can also have a plate corrode in two and render it nearly dead instantly. I had this happen with my '87 once. However, I walked to a parts store then pushed the new battery back to the truck in a shopping cart (I took it back to the store it belonged to once I had the truck running again).

 

Off to see what's wrong...wish me luck.

 

Yep. Always start with the easiest stuff first.

 

Hope, it's not the Alternator that went out

 

Ah ha! I'm back. It was the easy crap. Took the positive terminal off of the battery, and, lo-and-behold, horrible corrosion. Terminal was not loose, but the corrosion had completely opened the circuit. Cleaned everything, reseated the connection, and, presto, she's fine.

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

LOL...true.