'98 Expedition won't start, no power, lights nothing.

[Elliot]

Need a bit of help. I have a 1998 Ford Expedition, Eddie Bauer 5.4. Last fall I replaced the alternator and made sure the battery was holding and fully charged. All has been well until today. Came home from the dump and the wife had more garbage for me, so an hour later off to the dump again. Used the key fob, nothing. Thought the fob battery was out so got the replacement... nothing. Opened the door with the key, no dome light, headlights anything. Turned the key absolutely nothing. No clicks, nothing not a sound. I am going to check the battery connections tomorrow, but if they are good, does anyone have a suggestion. It is like there is not a battery in the thing. Typically when i have had a bad battery, I get an interior light or a whine or click when I try to start a vehicle... here absolutely nothing.

Thanks for any help and/or suggestions.

 

[toms89]

Anything left on? Age of battery? Sounds like something drained battery completely.

Obviously if you left the lights on you can forgo any troubleshooting and just jump vehicle and run long enough to recharge.

When I had this happen it turned out to be water in the fuse panel/gem module. This created load on battery when ignition was off. May or may not be related.

I would first check connections at battery and firewall. Also check battery voltage. If battery is dead you have a load somewhere that is draining it while parked, assuming you have a healthy battery.

This method can be used to find mystery load..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3_yWnUH2Sw&feature=player_embedded

 

[dgalvin66]

The last time I had that happen to me I opened the hood to find my battery gone. But that was on my old K5 Blazer that the hood was easily opened from the outside. Fixed that by drilling some holes in the hood and putting some locke in.

Only other thoughts are the battery went south real fast(dead cells), lose cable or blown main fuse.
You could have run something over at the dump that poped up into the engine compartment and shorted out and drained the battery.

 

[Lane24]

Was it a bumpy ride out to the dump. Maybe something came loose. like your cable or a fuse?

Hopefully a bad connection or something has shaken loose. Especially if there was no interior light whatsoever. You should have had at least a dim light on if your battery was weak.

EDIT: dgalvin66 is a way quicker typer than me. We are on the same idea wavelength there.

 

[Elliot]

Follow-up on '98 Expeditin without electrical power.

Follow-up questions. First, thanks for the help and the video. Here is what I have found out so far. The battery was 100% drained. However, the shop recharged and said that it was still good. I borrowed a multi-meter and ran it across the battery terminals when I started it. It came to 14.27 (unsure if this was volts or whatever), but the guy at the auto store said over 14 is enough to charge the battery, so the alternator appears to be good. This leads me to believe that I have a electrical drain on the system when it is not running. I watched the video and it made sense. Here are my questions. What do I do next if I find a fuse/curcuit that is draining power while the truck is off? Sounds simple, I suppose I follow the circuit? How? Where might I get a diagram? Also, is there an easy way to see if the gem module has shorted out... it was raining hard yesterday. I think I am on the correct path, but any further assist would be great. Please remember, I am a novice.. so something that sounds simple to you, may be something that can help me. Thanks everybody.

 

[toms89]

Follow-up questions. First, thanks for the help and the video. Here is what I have found out so far. The battery was 100% drained. However, the shop recharged and said that it was still good. I borrowed a multi-meter and ran it across the battery terminals when I started it. It came to 14.27 (unsure if this was volts or whatever), but the guy at the auto store said over 14 is enough to charge the battery, so the alternator appears to be good. This leads me to believe that I have a electrical drain on the system when it is not running. I watched the video and it made sense. Here are my questions. What do I do next if I find a fuse/curcuit that is draining power while the truck is off? Sounds simple, I suppose I follow the circuit? How? Where might I get a diagram? Also, is there an easy way to see if the gem module has shorted out... it was raining hard yesterday. I think I am on the correct path, but any further assist would be great. Please remember, I am a novice.. so something that sounds simple to you, may be something that can help me. Thanks everybody.

Using the method in the video...

What you are actually measuring is voltage drop across fuse. This only works on millivolt scale and the higher the load on the circuit the more the voltage drop. Its not practical to measure amperage of each circuit.

I would say if you locate circuit pull fuse and identify what circuit it is. It would be easier to answer what to do next if we knew this. If it is non-essential you could leave fuse out and let us know.

If your gem module/fuse panel has water issue as I descibed in my above post this test method likely will not work as it is the whole interior fuse panel that is at fault. Check out my thread here and see if any of this sounds familiar.

http://expeditionforum.com/showthread.php?t=14336

If so.. pm me and I would like to ask you a few questions to narrow it down.

 

[Elliot]

Fuse box questions for Expedition without electrical.

Sorry, yet another basic question. On the '98 Expedition, Eddie Bauer, 5.4 how many fuse boxes are there and their location? I have the one down by the emergency brake. However, diagrams I have seen online show two or three. Bought the vehicle used in '03 or '04 and it didn't come with the manual. Will attempt to isolate the electrical drain tomorrow. Thanks again.

 

[Thermo]

There are 2 fuse boxes in the truck with a 3rd location for some "mega-fuses". There is the one under the dash that you have found. If you open the hood of the truck, you will find a black fuse box next to the air cleaner. The mega-fuses are located next to the starting solenoid next to the battery. You will probably also find a lone fuse next to the brake booster as part of a recall that was done to a lot of Ford trucks.

 

[Elliot]

Can anyone tell me if what i have done is correct? First I went to the main fuse box and checked each fuse (don't remember if this was amps or volts or what). Each fuse came to a 0, except the door dinger fuse which came to a 1 and the interior light fuse, which came to a 12.7. Then a friend of my wife who is an electricl engineer told me to disconnect the positive side of the battery and begin pulling 1 fuse at a time, close the door, then take the millivolt tester (this was a different setting... millivolts?) and hold one end on the disconnected red (positive) cable, the other end on the negative terminal of the battery. Repeat the process with each fuse removed, one at a time. What happened was all removed fuse circuits showed a 1.23 or a 1.24 except again the door dinger fuse circuit and the interior lighting circuit. The door dinger came to a 0. The interior light circuit (with the doors closed) came to a .06. The engineer said that the .06 was the bad circuit, since no lights of any sort were on, and to remove this fuse until the wiring can be traced. Is this correct? I get that there shouldn't have been a .06... but what about every other circuit (minus the .0 door dinger circuit) having a 1.23 or 1.24. Isn't that worse than a .06? Once again, thanks for any input and I hope this makes sense.

 

[CARO'S98EB]

use an amp meter between the battery post and the cable. makesure everything is off then attach it [use it in a min 10A mode or you will blow a fuse]. then wait 1/2 to 3/4[ to let all the modules go to sleep] hour and by this time if there is not a drain the reading should be .05A or less, if it is more there is somthing on. without opening the doors[will wake up some modules] remove 1 fuse at a time if the amps drop down you have found it. Sometimes when you do this it will wake up some modules and you will have to wait for them to go back to sleep. some fuses have multiple things hooked to them so you may need a wiring diagram or at least a complete description of its loads.

 

[Elliot]

use an amp meter between the battery post and the cable. makesure everything is off then attach it [use it in a min 10A mode or you will blow a fuse]. then wait 1/2 to 3/4[ to let all the modules go to sleep] hour and by this time if there is not a drain the reading should be .05A or less, if it is more there is somthing on. without opening the doors[will wake up some modules] remove 1 fuse at a time if the amps drop down you have found it. Sometimes when you do this it will wake up some modules and you will have to wait for them to go back to sleep. some fuses have multiple things hooked to them so you may need a wiring diagram or at least a complete description of its loads.

Thanks, I haven't had any problems since I pulled that one fuse. Unfortunately, the fuse appears to power, not only the interior lights, but the rear wiper..... and the windows. Still cool here in Montana, so I have a little time to figure it out before it warms-up.