I don’t think I mentioned that I replaced the truck’s two batteries a couple of months ago. The truck was not starting reliably and both batteries were over 10 years old. They didn’t owe me anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the replacement batteries had less power than the old ones – 650 cold cranking amps rather than 850. I figured that the lower power rating would not be significant for a truck is never in cold weather and is rarely used. After I installed the new batteries I found that the cranking was somewhat more sluggish, but the truck started right up. Good enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But 2 days later it once again would not start. Wouldn’t even turn over. Worse, when I turned the ignition the dashboard went completely dark – total electrical failure. But I was able to get it started with a jump from the Toyota. I bought a new jumper cable and a trickle charger and was confident that if I left the truck on the charger it would start reliably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nope. Wouldn’t start again after being on the trickle charger, despite the device that monitors the health of the truck reporting that the batteries were fully charged. Hmmm… time for some investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So after a month of trial-and-error I have pretty much figured it out. It appears that there are 3 problems:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frankly, I am not totally sure that the last two problems are not the same problem – the ECM. But I will need to fix the ECM problem and then see if there is still an ignition switch problem<\/p>\n\n\n\n
*sigh* I am putting a lot of money into a vehicle that I rarely use. But as long as I have the RV I need the truck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don’t think I mentioned that I replaced the truck’s two batteries a couple of months ago. The truck was not starting reliably and both batteries were over 10 years old. They didn’t owe me anything. But the replacement batteries had less power than the old ones – 650 cold cranking amps rather than 850. … Continue reading