03 Ranger Wont Start

[Danimals]

Hello All,
I have a 2003 Ford Ranger xlt 4.0 with a manual transmission. Yesterday I started the truck up, drove 5 minutes down the road to the store, went to start it back up and nothing but clicks, dim dash lights, and dim dome lights when attempting to start. If you wait ~40 seconds after trying to start the truck without doing anything else, the dash lights and dome lights will return to their usual brightness, the battery light will light up, as well as the check gauge light. If you try to start the truck again, the lights will dim, and it (the starter I think) clicks.

This has happened before and it wound up being corrosion on the ground terminal lead on the battery. I cleaned all terminals, no luck. I Figured it must have just been a dead battery, had a friend try to jump the truck, no luck. Got the truck towed home and started trouble shooting. Removed the starter and had it bench tested, works mint (it should its only a few months old). Grabbed an ignition switch as well as a new cable to replace the old ground going from the battery to the starter. New cable, new starter switch, working starter, truck still wont start. Put the battery on a charger, says its charged. To rule out possibly dead cells or a bad battery Tried to use to the battery chargers "start mode" (75amps) to start the truck connected directly to the leads while they were disconnected from the battery, same result, truck wont start. However, while the battery charger is attached the speedometer, tachometer will bounce like crazy, the odometer at one point started adding miles to the truck (just my luck). Had my dad pull out the multi meter and we got to testing.

I will preface this by saying I have idea what I am doing when it comes to this electrical nonsense, that is my dads wheel house. I will try to explain what we did as best I can. The battery reads ~12 volts, power to the starter reads ~12 volts (cheapo meter cant determine how much current the starter is getting). When trying to start the voltage will drop to ~ 4 - 5 volts then goes back up to 12 volts. We then disconnected both leads to the battery, the power lead on the starter, and the power lead on the alternator, and the lead that goes into the distribution box. After some testing (I believe he was testing resistance / determining if there was something leaking power) , pops determined that there was some kind of leak coming from the distribution box. With the distribution box connected we pulled each fuse/relay to see if it would stop the leak.

Well we got to the last fuse in slot #1, which is apparently for the "I/P fuse panel" located inside the truck, and after removing it, the meter leak would go away. Tested the fuse in slot #1, not blown. Repeated previous test by removing each fuse in the I/P fuse panel to see what was causing the leak. We tried all the fuses, but it made no difference. We are stumped. Any suggestions? Let me know if there is anything else I can add or elaborate on.

 

[Curious Hound]

If battery is only reading 12 volts and drops to 4-5volts when starting, then it sounds like your battery is old and needs replacing.

On newer trucks, it is normal to have a battery drain for the first few minutes after engine is shut off. This is due to a timer and the battery saver relay keeping some things turned on for a little while like headlights, courtesy lights, etc. every time you open the door or fiddle with the key it restarts that timer. Makes troubleshooting fun.

I would concentrate on the battery replacement first . Then check the charging system after you get the battery replaced to make sure your alternator is properly charging the new battery. After all that is good, then check on battery drain if you think you have a problem with that.

 

[RonD]

Welcome to TRS

Hard post to read, try paragraphs, no not the grammar police, just like to be able to read it

What I got is your starter motor doesn't work using key
And when you turn the key to START battery reads 5volts, which means..................
Battery is bad
Battery cables are bad
Starter motor is bad, drawing too many amps, can bench test OK

A good battery reads 12.3v to 12.9v after sitting for a few hours, just after charging doesn't matter, thats "false voltage"
12.2v and lower is a bad battery, can't hold amps

Starter motor needs about 60-70amps to turn engine, on a good battery that will cause a 1.5-2v drop, so should read 10v when cranking

Yes, a good ground cable, AND a good positive cable to starter motor is needed
If the cables are bad then "jump start" using the bad cables wouldn't work, simple as that



Unrelated
All newer vehicles will have a .03-.07 amp draw when off, it can be as high as .7 amp for 20-30min until "battery saver" relay puts system to sleep
But computer, radio pre-sets, alarm and Keyless entry all need power full time, these never shut off

 

[Danimals]

Thanks fellas I appreciate the feedback, sorry for the awful formatting, hopefully that looks a bit sharper. I think the next step is going to be replace the battery and see if that does the trick. Otherwise its back to the multi meter. Will update before the end of today, thanks again, this has been frustrating.

 

[franklin2]

The important part is where exactly where the leads placed when you got the 5v when trying to crank? The other guys are correct, if you had the meter leads directly on the posts of the battery, then the battery has a problem. But if you were on the battery terminals instead of the battery posts, there may be a problem with the battery terminals.

That's the way to do it though. Hold the meter various places while someone tries to crank it over. If you are downstream of the problem you will get the 5v. If you are upstream of the problem you will still get 12v. And you have to move both leads around, though in this case you said you replace the ground cable.

What you can do also, if you find the suspect spot, you can actually put both meter leads on either side of the bad spot. When someone tries to crank the truck then, you will get approx 7v across the bad spot. That is the rest of the voltage that you were losing. 7 + 5 = 12v

 

[RonD]

I think you should replace BOTH larger battery cables, since jump starting didn't work, one of them is no longer capable of passing 70amps to starter
Which is why battery volts drop so low, but battery is also suspect

In your now 2nd paragraph you said ground cable was dirty and cleaned it, which is good but as that was happening over time both positive and negative cables were getting a higher than normal amp draw on start up, this causes corrosion under the insulation in both cables, they get HOT
You can use a razor knife and cut back the insulation on both cables, cut back at least 5" and if you see a whitish residue then replace that cable
Re-tape if it looks clean

You can't really test these cables because you need to test them at 70amps, so even a fancy volt meter won't cut it, lol
The Voltage drop at battery is a good test, as said 12v battery should be no lower than 10v when start is cranking engine over