Not starting, SF East Bay dealer repair?

I know there is a dealer in Sacramento and one in San Jose. Is there one in between? San Francisco? East bay? Dodge? Mercedes?

I have had it happen 4 times now, I go to start the car and it is like the battery is dead. The last two times I had a voltage meter hooked up. Leave it alone and the voltage comes back, but when you start to turn the key, right as it would normally be turning on accessories the thing acts dead and the meter shows less than 5 volts, or sometimes even nothing. The interior light can be on and when you start to turn the key, not to the start position, just to the accessory position, the light goes out.

Mine is an RV and I was bummed I didn't have a switch to use the house battery to start the engine, my house battery has always been fully charged when this happened and turning on the generator didn't help.

First time it happened I took a bunch of time to get the jumper cables and it started just fine before I actually set it up, that was when the car was new to me 4 months ago. The second time I just thought, this can't be right and tried again and it started right up, didn't have lights or meters on the car to see what was happening. Third time, night before last it failed after running into the store for cream and would not start. I went and got another car and ran the jumper cables across, the behavior didn't change and the meter in the cigar lighter showed 5 volts when the jumper cables were connected so it didn't notice the extra power, or the problem is post battery. I pulled the OBD ScanGauge product as it isn't stock, same issue. Next morning when the sun was up I came back and pulled the backup camera that I was tapping off the power right at the fuse box (from the fused side) and it started right up, but I had not actually tried it before pulling the power. Plugged the OBD back in and went about my day, no problems until the end of the day I took the wife for dinner and it promptly pooped out the same place in the mall parking lot.

Going back this morning to see if the trick is leaving it overnight or unplugging the OBD and letting it rest. But I can't be driving a car this unreliable, so when it does start if it's not obvious why I will need to take it to the dealer. I think it's still under warranty as it sold new in 2008, even though it's a 2006 van, but it's new to me and I have yet to get it serviced.

-Randy

For the measured (where? the 12v dash socket?) voltage to drop to 5 volts, one of two things must be happening (or both):
(a) bad/intermittent positive or negative connection to the battery or frame.
When you turn on the key, the current draw (say, the 90 amps of the glow plugs) cause that bad connection to drop the "missing" 7 volts.
This could also happen with a broken cell connector inside your battery.
Heat (happens when it's warm? not when it's cold?) being a factor suggests that problem.

(b) something drawing LOTS of current... if it was only happening when you turned the key to "Start", then i'd suspect a damaged starter motor (so that internal shorting was drawing the current). But it happens just at "on" ("position 2", in MB-speak).
The only pieces that can draw that much current without blowing fuses is tne glow plug circuit/relay.
Anything pulling enough current to pull you down to 5 volts would be getting VERY HOT.
Just feeling around *immediately* after such an incident might locate a still warm (or hot) component.
You should check the relays that are associated with each fuse bank (careful, don't get burned).

My *guess* is (a). (and i'd start by suspecting the battery... but reseat all post connections first)
Your battery-to-frame and engine-to-frame ground straps may have become frayed and broken many strands.

added: when you were using the jumper cables and the voltage fell to 5v, did the *other* car demonstrate effects of a heavy load? (i.e. motor sagged, gas had to be applied to keep it running)
If it did NOT sag, then it wasn't seeing the load... which again votes for an "open" circuit (bad connections, frayed ground straps) instead of a "short" circuit (which would load down the helper car... if the jumper cables were good enough)

good luck
--dick

Victory Auto World in Petaluma (not recommended), Hartzhiem Dodge in Hayward(?), Dodge dealership at I-80 and Richmond Parkway in Richmond, near Hilltop mall. People's Precision Repair next to REI in Berkeley (not dealer).

I don't think you have a dealer issue unless it's covered under warranty, and since it's an aftermarket RV, it's probably not. You need to find a vehicle electronics specialist to diagnose it unless you can use the above info to figure it out. I suspect bad connections or battery. Have the battery tested at FLAPS; a new Bosch battery is $99 at PepBoys. It may be as simple as adding distilled water to one or more of the cells, though, mine was low in a couple. Remove and clean the ground and pos contacts from the battery with electrical contact cleaner, $5 a can at FLAPS. Do the same for the isolator and aux battery.

When I went to pick my 2002 up from a mechanic last Thursday mine acted weirdly similar. After turning the key to engage the glow plugs the lights on the console lit up but did not cycle normally. After a length of time I decided to try and turn it over anyway and it would not turn over at all....it was dead. Got the mechanic out to look at it and he was as confused as I was saying it started just fine a few hours before when he pulled it out of the service bay!

I decided it looked like the security system might have gotten activated somehow and I disconnected the battery at the negative terminal and while disconnected turned the key to bleed off any remaining juice, removed the key and reconnected the battery cable and started the van normally. That was less than fun. But it is working right again so far now.

Good luck with yours!