It's dead Jim

[MichiganMan]

2004 SC/SE, 4wd, auto. Drove home from the kid's hockey game with no problem, come out 2 hours later and she's dead as a door nail. No IP lights, no cabin lights, no radio, will not even click when I turn the key. Battery is older but still good and shows almost a full charge.

Only thing I can say is that the lights for the instrument panel went dark a couple days ago. Ran fine, gauges and warning lights all worked, just the background lighting was out. Figured it was a fuse and I'd get around to it.

Any thoughts on it? Going to have to have it hauled to a shop tomorrow as I have no other vehicles. What a pisser... :grumpy:

 

[Muadeeb]

Check your battery terminals. I had my Neg go loose when I wasn't watching it.

 

[MichiganMan]

Terminals are tight. I did take a look at the underwood fuses, the one labeled "batt" (right in the middle) is locked solid - is there some kind of special tool needed to pull it? I was tempted to use pliers but thought I would ask first. Has to be something between the battery and the vehicle as it has no signs of life at all.

 

[MichiganMan]

Under hood, not underwood. Stupid spellcheck!

 

[mudchet]

Check for corrosion on any of the cables connected to the battery. I had a corrosion problem that gave me intermittent trouble. I tracked it down help, and confirmed the problem by bypassing the bad cable with an extra section of battery cable I happened to have. A volt meter may be helpful in chasing down where power is getting to and where its not.

 

[granitex]

How did you measure that the battery was at full charge? If all you did was put a volt meter on it and it showed slightly over 12v but did not test the CCA then you did not test the battery. You can have 12v but only say 150 amps, which will not have enough juice to do anything.

Did you try to jump it off of another vehicle? of did you just have it towed. I would put money on it being a bad battery and a blown fuse.

 

[TheFauxFox]

If you happened to attempt to jump it incorrectly, you may have destroyed a fuse or relay. I had similar symptoms in my G1 after a bad jump.

 

[MichiganMan]

I threw my battery charger on it and it showed about 12v. That being said, I tried to start it with the battery charger on it, it did not even think of starting. Truck acts like there is no battery in it at all. not even a twitch of life.

Question, should I be able to pull that fuse? Cause it ain't budging at all...

 

[TheFauxFox]

I threw my battery charger on it and it showed about 12v. That being said, I tried to start it with the battery charger on it, it did not even think of starting. Truck acts like there is no battery in it at all. not even a twitch of life.

Question, should I be able to pull that fuse? Cause it ain't budging at all...

My ignition relay was siezed and I ended up breaking it.

 

[granitex]

my finger tips are te fat to get fuses out without the little plastic puller, or needle nose pliers.

It will all depend on the charger,,

is it a trickle charger, or is it one of the ones that you can jump uff of.

 

[MichiganMan]

My charger is a 3 way, 2 amp/10 amp/jump right now with a gauge that shows how much charge is in the battery. I just can't believe the battery could go from "start on the first turn of the key" to so dead the interior lights dont come on (likewise radio, etc) in 2 hours.

 

[Malin_Rebate]

Last week mine did the same thing buck I could only jump it. Turned out I had a floating dead cell in my battery. Have you tried just jumping?

 

[04silverX]

You sure that gauge is telling you the voltage in the battery or how much it is putting in?? Like previously stated you need to get a volt metter and try and track where your electricity is going and where it is stopping If indeed your battery is good. Have you checked your ignition switch? All the functions are going to run threw there so a bad switch might cause these symptoms.

 

[MichiganMan]

Update and resolved - turned out it was a bad battery. I knew it was going, but had been putting off getting a new one (of course!). New battery resolved the issue. Now comes the mystery (and I'll open a new thread for it...)

 

[robcarync]

Mystery!