I've searched around in here and haven't found exactly what I'm experiencing, or I'm bad at keywords (either is possible). Truck died while driving (engine shut off, no dash lights, etc.) today.
2000 LC, 225,000 miles. 3rd owner, owned for 3 years.
Previous owner never mentioned any electrical issues, but they kept it indoors. Mine has to sit in my driveway (Kansas City), so it gets exposed to some rain.
A couple years ago, I went out to do some trail work, and came back to the horn on solid. Wasn't sure what was going on, wasn't sure if someone had messed with it, etc. Disconnected the battery, reconnected it, all seemed well, drove it home. A little while later, same thing happened in the driveway. Disconnected/reconnected battery, problem "stopped". A little while later, had some trouble starting it. Assumed that a dying battery was potentially the culprit to the problems, so I replaced it with an Optima RedTop.
Things seemed to go fairly well for a while. I did have trouble with the horns. At one point, the horn fuse in the engine bay fuse block was blown. Replaced it. Horns eventually died, and replaced them with some PIAA's from Amazon. Horns work well, fuse doesn't blow, etc.
Over the last 6 months, things seem to be progressing. When it rains, I do get some water in driver and/or passenger footwells. It's not consistent though. Sometimes, we'll have a hard rain, and there's no water in the footwell, sometimes a light/moderate rain and there's some water in one/both footwells. It's "on the list" to fix the minor rust starting around the top of the windshield and re-seal the windshield. I just haven't had time to pull the A-pillar trim and headliner and try to track down the location of the leak(s), but that's on the short list, to at least isolate the ingress point of the water.
It's had a slight parasitic electrical drain for a while. This winter, the battery would be dead if I didn't start/drive it for 4-5 days. Less than that, it was OK. I unplugged a phone charge cord that was plugged into one of the lighter spots below the A/C controls, and that seemed to solve it. Could sit for a week or more and start right up. Battery got drained down pretty hard more than once before I stopped that though.
Then, this week, the "battery thing" came back. Went to start it to go for a run with the dog, and dead. I mean like no lights on the dash when you turn the key dead. Not even pushing the starter dead. Pulled out my little "jumper box" (Costco thing). Had to put the jumper on it 3 times before it got enough juice to start it. It started just fine again later that day, and the next day.
I drove it to my in-laws yesterday. Started up, drove fine, started there, and drove home. No issues.
Went out to start it today to drive it across town, and completely dead again. Hit it with the jumper box twice and got it started. Assumed things were fine, so I left. 5-10 min into the drive, several dash lights came on and it lost power for 1-2 sec on the highway (at 60mph), and then everything literally went "back to normal". Headed straight for the next exit to head home, not wanting to risk having it die at full highway speed. As I was turning from the off-ramp to the side road, the dash went dark and the engine died. I coasted it over the curb and out of traffic. Jumper box didn't have quite enough juice to crank it. Called AAA and got a jump. Alternator was showing 15A according to the tow guy. I'll pull the battery soon and take it to Advance Auto to get it tested just in case that's it, or at least if it's dying and adding to the issue.
Any ideas?
It doesn't seem like a clockspring issue. Is it really as "simple" as fixing the windshield leak? I've put a meter across the battery and the amperage draw when the engine was off seemed to be within the range that I saw in some searches, so this issue has been frustrating.
2000 LC, 225,000 miles. 3rd owner, owned for 3 years.
Previous owner never mentioned any electrical issues, but they kept it indoors. Mine has to sit in my driveway (Kansas City), so it gets exposed to some rain.
A couple years ago, I went out to do some trail work, and came back to the horn on solid. Wasn't sure what was going on, wasn't sure if someone had messed with it, etc. Disconnected the battery, reconnected it, all seemed well, drove it home. A little while later, same thing happened in the driveway. Disconnected/reconnected battery, problem "stopped". A little while later, had some trouble starting it. Assumed that a dying battery was potentially the culprit to the problems, so I replaced it with an Optima RedTop.
Things seemed to go fairly well for a while. I did have trouble with the horns. At one point, the horn fuse in the engine bay fuse block was blown. Replaced it. Horns eventually died, and replaced them with some PIAA's from Amazon. Horns work well, fuse doesn't blow, etc.
Over the last 6 months, things seem to be progressing. When it rains, I do get some water in driver and/or passenger footwells. It's not consistent though. Sometimes, we'll have a hard rain, and there's no water in the footwell, sometimes a light/moderate rain and there's some water in one/both footwells. It's "on the list" to fix the minor rust starting around the top of the windshield and re-seal the windshield. I just haven't had time to pull the A-pillar trim and headliner and try to track down the location of the leak(s), but that's on the short list, to at least isolate the ingress point of the water.
It's had a slight parasitic electrical drain for a while. This winter, the battery would be dead if I didn't start/drive it for 4-5 days. Less than that, it was OK. I unplugged a phone charge cord that was plugged into one of the lighter spots below the A/C controls, and that seemed to solve it. Could sit for a week or more and start right up. Battery got drained down pretty hard more than once before I stopped that though.
Then, this week, the "battery thing" came back. Went to start it to go for a run with the dog, and dead. I mean like no lights on the dash when you turn the key dead. Not even pushing the starter dead. Pulled out my little "jumper box" (Costco thing). Had to put the jumper on it 3 times before it got enough juice to start it. It started just fine again later that day, and the next day.
I drove it to my in-laws yesterday. Started up, drove fine, started there, and drove home. No issues.
Went out to start it today to drive it across town, and completely dead again. Hit it with the jumper box twice and got it started. Assumed things were fine, so I left. 5-10 min into the drive, several dash lights came on and it lost power for 1-2 sec on the highway (at 60mph), and then everything literally went "back to normal". Headed straight for the next exit to head home, not wanting to risk having it die at full highway speed. As I was turning from the off-ramp to the side road, the dash went dark and the engine died. I coasted it over the curb and out of traffic. Jumper box didn't have quite enough juice to crank it. Called AAA and got a jump. Alternator was showing 15A according to the tow guy. I'll pull the battery soon and take it to Advance Auto to get it tested just in case that's it, or at least if it's dying and adding to the issue.
Any ideas?
It doesn't seem like a clockspring issue. Is it really as "simple" as fixing the windshield leak? I've put a meter across the battery and the amperage draw when the engine was off seemed to be within the range that I saw in some searches, so this issue has been frustrating.
