Random no start. Clicking noise. Missfires. SOLVED
99 Ford Ranger 3.0 liter V6 flex fuel
Symptoms- First noticed ocasionally truck would not start. No power, no turnover like a dead battery, no lights nothing. I would open the hood look at the battery, curse, maybe wiggle the battery leads. Many times power was restored truck started and I forgot about the issue.
Recently, the truck would missfire when using blinkers. For example I could be cruising either at 70 mph or 30 and when actuating blinkers vehicle would lurch ( lose power) very briefly then resume to normal. I soon realized it was not just the blinkers that creates this condition but the head lights or anything in the vehicle that could draw power.
Took the truck to mechanic. He runs the OBD computer free of charge. No codes detected other than faulty rear defog relay (which I am not equipped with) however, of note, random brief cylinder missfires could be seen when using the blinkers (no codes however).
The no start issue becomes less occasional. I can see that the vehicle has power (theft light blinking) when I actuate the break, or turn the ignition theres no power (theft light out, no dome light, etc.) Battery seems drained. And, even when I take out the key and the ignition is off now there is a rapid CLICKING behind dash that lasts a random amount of time. This time I get a jump. The truck still doesn't have power. Well guess what, I monkey around and jiggle the leads reposition jumpers and it starts with out a hiccup.
Background:
While all this is happening theres two things going through my mind. I've replaced the crappy old multi switch which caused my wipers to behave erraticly about a year ago and while the truck was in storage I came back to find battery acid all over the terminals which was a mess and had to be remedied by attaching new leads.
Because the missfire condition happened not only when I used the blinkers (multi switch) but anything that drew power( I.E headlights ) I looked at the terminals ( magical jiggling seemed to have an effect). The terminals did have some green crusty crap on them but no where near as bad as before.
Solution:
Battery Cleaner( acid nuetrilizer)
Battery terminal anti corossive
Stiff brush
Sand paper (cleaning lead/ground contacts to good metal )
water (flushing away corrosion after battery cleaner/ spray bottle)
Dremmell tool wire brush
Corrosion can work its way into the lead( even if the terminals look clean and tight they may not have good connection
So far no more symptoms as previously described. All the stuff for doing battery lead surgery can be found at the auto parts store. Try cleaning first and if the leads are just full of green white crusted crap and corroded to hell and you get no joy you can buy leads that are meant to splice in to your old ones ( replacing the whole lead/ OEM harness is beyond my level but is a more sound but in depth option)
There are other posts throughout this forum of people with similar issues. Many of them when taken together also point towards poor lead ground connections. (trace battery leads short distance until you find a wire that connects to frame-ground connection). These helped me finally solve something without hemmoraging money hence my post hopefully for someone elses benefit.
This may not be the problem you have but if you have these symptoms as described doing simple stuff that doesn't involve relays, diagrams, ecu, pcu's and inummerable other accronyms might be a good way to go.
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