Truck is being a pain

I've got a 2000 3.4 auto and on my way to school today it just died. I had put in a new blinker fuse last night bc my rear left blinker was out. I put in a new battery, but as soon as I closed the hood it died again. While it was running, it was running fine. Before the battery was put in, I heard what sounded like a relay clicking extremely fast, and it only happened when my hazards were on. I took out the new fuse I had put in, then the new battery. I ended up flat towing it home, but when I got home it smelt like it was on fire. I'm not sure why any of this happened, and any of your guys suggestions will be greatly appreciated and helpful. Thanks

 

stupid question but, did you use the right amp fuse? This could cause a problem at the short that blew the fuse in the first place.

 

I replaced it with a 10 amp fuse, which it already had. And no dumb questions here. I rely on this truck so much that anything to fix it will help

 

Then I would start by tracing the blinker wires and try to find the short. Relays can be tested as well since you stated you heard one going crazy. They can fail. Not sure how this would stop your motor from running. Chasing an electrical problem is always a pain in the arse for me.

 

Thanks man. My dad is a diesel mechanic and builds proper minitrucks, and even he's stressing about it being an electrical problem

 

Did you short your battery on the hood?

 

It never hurts to make sure all your grounds are clean and tight. There are more than just the negative cable that goes to the battery. Should be one immediately to the right of the battery attaching to metal. Two grouped together on the side of the upper air intake manifold. One at the back left area of the engine bay that goes to the firewall. Block to frame, etc.

Is your battery bolted down or is it free to jump around when you hit bumps?

 

Obvious....easiest to do first is check all connections around the battery.....
and in between that and alternator... do an alternator and battery test....
even if its a new battery.........scotty just reported one brand new battery they built in reverse,,,while he was in Houston......fried whole electrical system.....

After that your guessing....

could be vac leak....stuck egr valve....bad injector......ect...

best way to track down is to hook up a scanner and run live data while engine running...
that would probably point you in the right direction.......

could be simple as one of the engines sensors is dead....or way off....


If nothing pops there...its probably electrical....

only two lines power engine.....one goes to the coils....am2....
and the other line powers everything else.....am1....
checking those coming out of engine fuse box....going thru dash fuse box to ignition switch....
then out thru rest of vehicle...

super simple compared to anything modern.....

When my ignition switch was going bad.....it would run for a mile or two,,,
idle rough......and it would blow am2 fuse......right when you give it gas...
let cool for 30min and would go another couple miles....

 

Cheap scanners wont give you vsv or egr valve state....

thats gonna take at least a $250/ $350 scanner.....

when those click on or off.....the fuel trims will jump around to accommodate.......

 

Take a pic of the battery area, lets see what we can see. Also the battery and your fuse box with the lid off.
Hang tough, electrical isn't as bad as you think.

 

Going by your description .

It sounds like closing the hood cause the system voltage to drop below the threshold voltage causing the ECM to shut off the engine.

The job is to figure what caused it.

One step at a time lots of pictures find what is causing the burnt smell.

 

So I got it all figured out. I was getting an bad crank and cam position sensor, and the burning smell was from an improper ground. I'm not sure why it shut off when I closed the hood, but it stopped doing that lol. Thanks for all of your suggestions. I'll update yall later to tell you exactly what I did to fix it. You guys are very much appreciated.

 

Yeah, sometimes I switch to another scanner.....and that sensor I was getting weird readings on one...
checks out to be fine on another.....

My blue driver was saying my throttle pos sensor was hardly moving....

I hooked up to a buddies $300 one......it said boloney......it was fine...

 

Define a improper ground ?

 

happy u got her up and running again.

 

Alright guys it happened again. Here's the story and the fix.

My battery tray is broken, so the battery slides around. I took a corner a little to fast, to impress the ladies of course. The battery slid, causing the positive terminal to touch the metal battery tie down, shorting out the entire truck. I just unplugged the battery, repositioned it, plugged it back in, and the truck was on its way.

The ladies were not impressed

 

Can`t like that!

You were very lucky!!

 

I know, I'm glad I was where I was when it happened, other wise I'd still be on the side of the road! Thank God for the one guy in a SEMA quality Ram for having a full set of tools lol

 

lol fail

 

Does anyone drive around in a Ram without a full set of tools? Who said that?