Help, should I be concerned ?? Lost juice

I'm wondering if I should be concerned with this,

Maybe someone has experienced the same thing.

2 months ago I parked my 05 3500 @ the store. Went to leave, hit the key, all lights and buzzers buzzing. Went to turn over lost everything. No juice, nothing !!

Messed with batt. term. and could get juice back (dome light & things) but when turning over, it would click, and would lose all juice.

After doing this fo 10 min. it finally turned over.

Got home, shut it off, same thing, lost all juice.

I cleaned all terminals (looked fine to begin with) and still same thing, would get dash lights & all but when cranking would kill juice.

I had another battery I put in, all was well . Cranked all the time, no power loss.

My old battery was an Interstate. Took it to dealer and checked out fine, found out was 6 years old.

I went ahead and purchased new battery and all has been fine since (2 months)......till now !!!

This morning went to fuel up for a 4 hr trip. Went to crank and bam, clicked and lost all juice.

Messed with terminals ( all clean ) for 15 min. & it finally cranked over.

I left for my trip and got 20 miles down the road and turned it around. Not feeling right of going 4 hrs away and getting stranded.

Is there some underlying issue going on here of is it just a bad terminal connection ??

I don't think it is terminal connection, things are shinny !!

Anyone else experience this ??

I have 178000 miles on it.

Any help would be appreciated !!

You've cleaned all the terminals, but did you unscrew and clean both ends of the ground strap (s)?
Did you have a look at the battery disconnect connection inside the cab of your Sprinter?
Might want to pull the cover off the fuse box at the base of the steering column and see if the fuse block
is loose in it's mounts, or may need to be cleaned up.
Did you ever have the starter replaced? Might want to check the mounting bolts there as well.
Hope this helps,
Roger

The battery terminals proper are only one of many connections. Follow the heavy cables and look for any signs of corrosion at any of the connection points. Inspect the fuse assembly on the positive post for corrosion.

Also check the ground point on the firewall behind the battery. Some people have had problems with the engine ground strap and recommend adding another ground strap.

If they look good it still may be worth disassembling and cleaning the connections. For safety, remove the negative battery terminal before messing with things. Use Vaseline or branded electrical grease when re-assembling any of the components.

Good luck.

vic

Edit: Typing while Roger was posting.
the 2005 doesn't have an OEM battery disconnect.

sailquik said:

You've cleaned all the terminals, but did you unscrew and clean both ends of the ground strap (s)?

If you are talking @ the firewall, yes. Pulled connection & cleaned all wires. Is there another ground area ?

Did you have a look at the battery disconnect connection inside the cab of your Sprinter?
No, where is this located, under driver seat ?

Might want to pull the cover off the fuse box at the base of the steering column and see if the fuse block
is loose in it's mounts, or may need to be cleaned up.

Pulled cover & which block is it ? I found flasher, which one is it ?


Did you ever have the starter replaced?

No

Might want to check the mounting bolts there as well.

I'll check them.

Hope this helps,
Roger

Click to expand...

Bear with me here, I'm learning this thing !!

I posted my answers in the quote part. Sorry, forum rookie.

Did you have a look at the battery disconnect connection inside the cab of your Sprinter?

Click to expand...

No, where is this located, under driver seat ?

Click to expand...

The T1N Sprinters don't have a battery disconnect switch. That's an NCV3 thing.

Might want to pull the cover off the fuse box at the base of the steering column and see if the fuse block
is loose in it's mounts, or may need to be cleaned up.

Click to expand...

Pulled cover & which block is it ? I found flasher, which one is it ?

Click to expand...

The fuse block is the entire thing that the cover hides. The two or three relays at the bottom are just plugged into it.
(i'm speaking of the under-steering-wheel cover)
There are histories of the metal bars that are behind the plastic block (and which form the fuse contact points) breaking free and moving slightly, causing intermittent contact/operation.

The retaining nut that's embedded in the plastic frequently breaks free, making removal of the block very difficult.



--dick (image courtesy Vic)

Help again !!!!

Hopefully someone has experienced this.

Read my first post @ top to get familiarized with this.

After my last episode I did a google search on my issue and found some similar issues and the most common fix was to run an alternate battery ground.

I did this back in May & all has been fine till now.

Turned key on last night, all lights a go as normal. Waiting for glow plug light to go out, went out, went to turn over, click, lost everything. No lights,nothing, total darkness.

I thought crap, here we go again, only this time 4.5 hrs from home !!

I messed with negative ground connection (both of them) and seen dome light came back on through windshield. Got in, went to crank, click, lost all again.

Messed with negative ground again, dome light came on, got in & this time she cranked over.

Started home (dark) and this time I noticed that my headlights would flicker when I applied brakes, and they would flicker to the same beat as my turn signals flashing.

I'm thinking this is a ground issue and I need to get a new ground cable when I get home.

My lights did not dim, I had no charging light come on. My thinking is charging system was fine.

3 hrs into trip hit a good sized bump & all hell broke loose.
Dash lights all flashing on/off. I think every damn light on the dash read out was flashing.
Van would not run over 60. Would die out if I tried to accelerate.
I'm freaking out !!
Did this for about a mile & all of a sudden everything was fine.
Now my check engine light is on.

Continued trip home.

Got 30 min. from home and went to pass big rig on 2 lane.
Got by him just fine, as I got by I flicked brights on & all hell broke loose again.

All dash lights on & flickering & van will not run over 60 just as before.

Did this for a few miles & all back to normal, with check engine light on still.

About 5 miles from home (for Curiosity's sake) I flicked on brights & sure as hell, it went nuts again !!!

I made it home, pulled it into garage.
I turned engine off, just as the fire went out I was in complete dark, no dome light no nothing. I popped hood, tugged on negative cable & dome light came on. Went to crank & same 'ole crap, nothing ..... pulled cable again, dome light on WENT TO BED !!!

I need some advise, PLEASE

Well, just to make your life difficult: it could be more than one thing.

Let's assume your alternator isn't working reliably (and that could mean "cable bolted to alternator is loose" or "diode voltage regulator on alternator is flaky" or "brushes are shot" (do you drive in gritty/dusty areas a lot?) or "cable between battery and alternator is damaged" or (biggy here, would directly affect starting (but would NOT explain the "everything dead" syndrome... except due to dead battery) engine ground strap is broken/frayed/loose (it's a cable that bridges the driver-side motor mount)

If your alternator is not reliably charging the battery, then that would explain the "headlamps pulse with directionals".
Even a "dead" battery (pulled waay down by trying to start) will recover a bit... enough to light the dome light.

(required commercial announcement: if you had a ScanGauge or DashDaq (plugs into the diagnostic OBD connector above the hood release), you'd be able to tell us the voltage when things were going weird.)
If you're fighting voltage/battery issues, at least the cheap/free voltmeter from Harbor Freight or RadioShack would help diagnostics immensely.

You could have a relay that's sticking "on" sometimes... that drains your battery when you park overnight.
(a faulty alternator regulator can do that, too).
A damaged wire harness (running under the engine or frame) can get dinged by a thrown rock and short-circuit some of the internal wires.
(the "turned on brights" could be a symptom of that)

First job: get a voltmeter. MEasure the battery with engine off and engine running (should be above 13.5 volts with engine running and charging it.
It should be at least 12v (preferable 12.6 or so) with engine off)

good luck
--dick

Update...

Replaced negative ground cable @ battery.

Replaced OEM. I'm sure it's the original, going on 10 years.

Cranked over without an issue at all. Did 10+ cranks, all good.

Took for a 45 min drive @ dark with lights a blazing.

Zero flickering with brakes, turn signals. Brights on/off a dozen + times no issues @ all.

Check engine light went off.

We will see what happens.

All good so far. Hard to believe that little ground cable to firewall could cause so much crap.

Do not know if that was it or not, time will tell.