Help !!! Intermittent starting issue

I am having a intermittent starting issue with my truck. I've searched and searched and can not find any posts with the same symptoms. My truck is an 03, 2.4 liter, standard. I'll turn the key and no lights on the dash or they are very dim, no radio and no headlights and the truck will not start. If I leave the key in the on position, sometimes all the lights will suddenly come on and then it will start. Sometimes all the lights come on right away and it will start. When having the problem, I tried rolling the truck and popping the clutch and still won't start. Swapped out the positive side battery clamp, ignition key cylinder and ignition switch and no luck. Checked for shorts with the multimeter and everything appears to be good. Checked all the relays and ohmed them out... all the relays are good. Any ideas what could be causing this?

 

Have you checked all of your chassis grounds?

 

Heres the ground locations

 

These may be of help as well.

 

I checked the wires as best as I could just following them. I'll check again with these as a reference, they should be a huge help. Thanks Russianman92.

 

Gotta be a ground.

 

I am having the same issues... the dash idiot lights normally come on bright when its working (90% of the time this is the case) and when it doesn't work they come on dim and the truck wont click or make a sound when I try to start.

Did you try the ground fix? Was it successful? Or what did you find was the problem?

thanks for a reply
rgrds,

 

try smacking the area where the ignition cylinder is... the electrical portion of the ignition switch could be on the way out.

 

It should be a ground wire.

 

+ 100.

Intermittent issues are almost always a bad ground. A bad connection or the wire itself may be bad. Grounds are easy to fix at least.

 

keep your jumper cables handy and next time it acts up, have a helper connect the neg. clamps to the neg. battery post and a good earth spot on the engine creating a new temporary ground strap. If the lights suddenly brighten and the truck starts, chase your bad ground.

 

Too true. Mine was the ground straight from the negative battery terminal. Some new wire and a two ring terminals later an no issues since.