Range of problems

[MaverikDS]

So I have a 2001 with the 5.4 and recently it has given me some weird issues. Every time I drive it now I am unable to turn it off and restart it. After I turn the car off, nothing works as if the battery was disconnected. As soon as I turn it off and open the door, the dome lights do not work, the remote will not work, code on the side of the drivers door will not work...nothing. This includes trying to restart it. Essentially if I run an errand I have to leave my car running while I go into a store so that I can then get home. It seems like a matter of time before it will let me start it again as well. If I do nothing and then go back to it some time later it acts as if nothing happened. When I start it the speedo and tach both go all the way up (100mph & 6000rpm) and then reset to 0 and idle on the tach. My radio presets are all cleared but it runs fine. I have checked my battery terminal as I was thinking that maybe that was the problem and cleared what little corrosion there was. I installed brass terminals a while ago though so there wasn't really much at all. I'm at a loss at what the problem could be as all the fuses are in tact and it seems like if I let it sit and go back it will work fine for the next trip until I turn it off. Has anyone had anything like this happen or any ideas?

On a side note and I don't know if this is related, last week just after I started it and put it in drive and pulled forward about 2 feet the car just turned off. I put it back in park and it started up just fine and didn't act up again until yesterday when it started doing what I described above.

Any ideas and welcome or I guess I will have to go to a shop but would really like to try and solve this on my own.

 

[KWT2000]

check your ground connections first their is 4 of them all together...

then check the power transfer points behind the batter on the firewall..

you have a bad connection somewhere

 

[MaverikDS]

Do you think that temperature could be a factor? I'm just curious as this just started happening with summer and usually when it is not just warm but HOT...?

 

[KWT2000]

higher temps does equal higher resistance in electrical connections

 

[Sven]

How old is your battery?

Also, some of those symptoms I had when my windshield was leaking.

 

[supermario]

My bro has had some issues when he doesnt put the shifter all the way into park. If its even off by a tad, the Expy wont start.

 

[MaverikDS]

So I spent a lot of time tracking down negative leads, cleaning my terminals, replacing my terminals..etc and still would have the problem every once in a while. Again as noted before more so when it was hot. Found my problem in a loose nut and since tightening it the Expo has gone to Vegas on an 11xx mile roadtrip and then continued normal use without any issues. Here is a picture with what I needed to tighten down. As you guys probably can already tell I'm not that mechanically inclined and am unsure of what this part is called but I know it has to do with starting...Hope this might help anyone else who might have this problem in the future.

 

[BakerEdition]

Is that a starter relay....i didnt know they still used those??