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'03 5.3 Wont Start

ws6_guy

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ws6_guy Senior Enthusiast

ws6_guy

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My friend has an '03 5.3L and we had a little fun with it, did a few donuts in a field and topped it out, and afterwards when he went to start it later on nothing happened, it didn't even crank. The DIC flashes Service AirBag, Service 4wd, and Service Brake Booste. What could be wrong? We checked connections on the transfercase, looked the engine bay down good, re-set the battery, I pulled the fuse box lid and it looks like 40A for ignition needs to be replaced, i'm gonna run out and buy a new fuse for him tomorrow and try to get it running. Any ideas how to get it to crank? Guess if you play too hard you pay for it later.

alwcurlz Enthusiast

alwcurlz

Posted
Posted
My friend has an '03 5.3L and we had a little fun with it, did a few donuts in a field and topped it out, and afterwards when he went to start it later on nothing happened, it didn't even crank. The DIC flashes Service AirBag, Service 4wd, and Service Brake Booste. What could be wrong? We checked connections on the transfercase, looked the engine bay down good, re-set the battery, I pulled the fuse box lid and it looks like 40A for ignition needs to be replaced, i'm gonna run out and buy a new fuse for him tomorrow and try to get it running. Any ideas how to get it to crank? Guess if you play too hard you pay for it later.

 

Was it a pretty rough ride? I know there are some issues with these trucks that could be triggered from rough driving.

 

My thoughts on this:

1. May not start due to a fuel/ignition shutoff switch?

2. Airbag sensors likely sensed some hard thuds. Lucky the airbags didn't deploy in your face.

3. The 4WD switch has a cold solder joint problem which is easy to fix, I did the fix on mine. Probably shook the heavy wire harness/connector and the circuit board solder pads let loose of the connector.

4. Brake booster probably got shook pretty good as well and maybe the level sensor got jogged. Or, there may be a fluid leak.

 

Hope my analysis helps some!

ws6_guy Senior Enthusiast

ws6_guy

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Thanks for the advice alwcurlz, yeah it was pretty wild, that bump we hit didn't do it any good...

 

Anyways, the ignition fuse is #40A, bought new ones and it didn't blow them, but it didn't crank, crawled under and looked for loose connections anywhere and noticed how nasty and oxidized the starter was, thought it was the starter, then thought it was a missing ground. We ended up towing it to the GM dealer to have a diagnostic ran, and they said its the starter, so we will replace it. We'll buy a new one on monday and see what happens.

  • 4 weeks later...
alwcurlz Enthusiast

alwcurlz

Posted
Posted
Thanks for the advice alwcurlz, yeah it was pretty wild, that bump we hit didn't do it any good...

 

Anyways, the ignition fuse is #40A, bought new ones and it didn't blow them, but it didn't crank, crawled under and looked for loose connections anywhere and noticed how nasty and oxidized the starter was, thought it was the starter, then thought it was a missing ground. We ended up towing it to the GM dealer to have a diagnostic ran, and they said its the starter, so we will replace it. We'll buy a new one on monday and see what happens.

 

Bump...how did it work out? Fix it?

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