Went out to truck and wont start

onebad8.1 · January 17, 2017

So i went out to my truck this morning and nothing no lights no start nothing. It did this to me 1 month ago and put new optima yellow top battery in it and all was well drove it 3 or 4 times since then and on this Sunday drove it a bunch starting and shutin it off no prob ot sat yesterday and tbis morning nothing any ideas btw i got the battery on slow charge to see if that was the problem. It a 2003 cc lb 8.1 4x4 120k

Coby7 · January 17, 2017

03-04's were notorious for having their clusters fail and not turn ''OFF'' after you removed the key. This will kill your battery over night if both delay circuits stay ''ON''. If only one stays on it could take 3 days to kill the battery because you'd be drawing 250ma for each delay circuit. Now this could be intermittent for a long time before it actually fails completely and never shuts off. Several ways to tackle this.

1. You can pull the cluster fuse and see if it happens again.

2. Swap the cluster with a known good one.

3. Have the cluster tested by a professional.

I repaired an 04 cluster this morning that had this problem. I can help you with this if this happens to be your problem.

dewfpo · January 17, 2017

I had this happen once on my 2005 8.1L one day about 8 years ago. I got in and everything was dead as a door nail. The next day I went out to figure out what was wrong with it and I turned the key and everything was normal and has been ever since. Go figure. It's never happened again and I have the same OE batteries in it. The only thing I can think of is that it must have been something electronic like a one time glitch in the OE security system or the battery drain cutoff.

DEWFPO

onebad8.1 · January 18, 2017

Thanks for the replying guys ima check my new batt is still good a autozone then go from there

onebad8.1 · January 18, 2017

Where is the cluster fuse located because bothe batteries and charging system is good

onebad8.1 · January 18, 2017

I found the cluster fuse and pulled it out about 10 this morning,went out at 3 this afternoon and battery was completely dead, so im thing its not the cluster thats draining the battery any got aby suggestions?

dewfpo · January 19, 2017

Have you disconnected the neg. battery cable and connected a DVOM between the batt. cable and the batt. post to check current draw, then pull each fuse one at time so see which circuit has the high draw?

DEWFPO

vucelick · January 19, 2017

hook up your multimeter to the battery and start pulling fuses one at a time until you find the one that makes the draw condition go away. Then trouble shoot that circuit/problem.