Navara starting AND not starting depending on its mood....

Funkfield

Hi all,

Was wondering if anyone here might be able to shed a bit of light on a problem I'm having with my '01 Navara.

About a month ago I left work to find that my Navara, which had been fine up to then, has a seemingly dead battery. It wouldn't turn over at all. Later I got it jumped and brought it home.
A mechanic had a look at it as it didn't seem to be holding a charge. He rebuilt the alternater and everything was fine.
Until yesterday......
I left work again to find out that it was dead. I got it jumped yet again and brought it home and it is now dead again.

The battery light never came on once to indicate that it wasn't getting a charge.
Some things have led me to think it may be a loose connection.
I did find that the battery had not only not been secured properly but the connections were quite loose too. (Tightening these up did not help,yet. But I have not run it since tightening them as I had no one to jump it.)
The last time I jumped it, the radio would was completely off, not even a power light. Along with that the dash-lights were almost non existent, and the dipped headlights were very dim. After going over a speed bump, everything suddenly came back to life.

What I am thinking is that there is a loose connection or something that is stopping the battery from getting a charge and stopping the truck from starting. Possibly.

Does anybody have any idea what might be going on? I don't want to bring it to a mechanic just yet.

Many thanks.

Jeb

Funkfield

Bump.................

Slidey

It is probably a dead battery, killed by the cold.

Get your hands on a multimeter if you can and check battery voltage and voltage when the jeep is running. Charging voltage should be over 13 volts

101sean

Check the main earth from the battery to the chassis and on to the engine. Use a jump lead direct from the battery earth to the engine block, if it starts that's the problem.

If not, dead battery as Slidey says, my Td5 did it recently. Always started straight away until I left the side lights on for an hour one evening and it was as dead as a doornail. So dead in fact that when I jumped it, the alarm went off and I had to do the EKA routine to start it. You could get a garage to drop test the battery to verify it.

Did it again a few days later, the earth on to the gearbox had decided to loosen itself after putting a new battery in :rolleyes:

jimmyw

Funkfield wrote: »

Hi all,

Was wondering if anyone here might be able to shed a bit of light on a problem I'm having with my '01 Navara.

About a month ago I left work to find that my Navara, which had been fine up to then, has a seemingly dead battery. It wouldn't turn over at all. Later I got it jumped and brought it home.
A mechanic had a look at it as it didn't seem to be holding a charge. He rebuilt the alternater and everything was fine.
Until yesterday......
I left work again to find out that it was dead. I got it jumped yet again and brought it home and it is now dead again.

The battery light never came on once to indicate that it wasn't getting a charge.
Some things have led me to think it may be a loose connection.
I did find that the battery had not only not been secured properly but the connections were quite loose too. (Tightening these up did not help,yet. But I have not run it since tightening them as I had no one to jump it.)
The last time I jumped it, the radio would was completely off, not even a power light. Along with that the dash-lights were almost non existent, and the dipped headlights were very dim. After going over a speed bump, everything suddenly came back to life.

What I am thinking is that there is a loose connection or something that is stopping the battery from getting a charge and stopping the truck from starting. Possibly.

Does anybody have any idea what might be going on? I don't want to bring it to a mechanic just yet.

Many thanks.

Jeb

The battery light only tells you if the alternator is charging the battery, not the state of charge in it.It does sound like the battery is at fault.
If the mechanic knew the battery was not holding a charge,why did they rebuild the alternator? instead.

Funkfield

jimmyw wrote: »

The battery light only tells you if the alternator is charging the battery, not the state of charge in it.It does sound like the battery is at fault.
If the mechanic knew the battery was not holding a charge,why did they rebuild the alternator? instead.

The battery light never came on during any of this, so I was pretty sure that the alternator was doing its job. Its only a new battery, a couple of months old.

I haven't had a chance to jump it and run it since the I got it home. I was wondering if maybe, because the battery connections were so loose, that the battery might have been:
1. killed by the cold (as was said above)
2. not getting a charge because of the loose connections
3. not showing that it wasn't getting a charge from the alternator as the battery charge light might be faulty(?).

So I'm hoping that if I jump it and run it for a while it might fix the problem as now the battery is securely connected. The was it was acting made me think it was a loose connection before I found out that the battery was loose.

Its a long shot but I don't want to go shelling out just yet.

jimmyw

Funkfield wrote: »

The battery light never came on during any of this, so I was pretty sure that the alternator was doing its job. Its only a new battery, a couple of months old.

I haven't had a chance to jump it and run it since the I got it home. I was wondering if maybe, because the battery connections were so loose, that the battery might have been:
1. killed by the cold (as was said above)
2. not getting a charge because of the loose connections
3. not showing that it wasn't getting a charge from the alternator as the battery charge light might be faulty(?).

So I'm hoping that if I jump it and run it for a while it might fix the problem as now the battery is securely connected. The was it was acting made me think it was a loose connection before I found out that the battery was loose.

Its a long shot but I don't want to go shelling out just yet.

When you say this, I assume you mean it didn't come on while driving.I am sure you know it should come on when you first turn on the ignition before you start, and then go out when she fires.But since your mechanic rebuilt the alt, it should be ok.Bad connections will certainly not help, but maybe get your battery checked now.

Fishtits

My Tuppence worth...

After going over a speed bump, everything suddenly came back to life.

Big hint there that its got a bad connection, not definitive but certainly enough to go check them all, including earths.

It wouldn't turn over at all

What did it do exactly? "Click", or "click click click" or "Nothing, Nada", did the dash lamps dim? go out completely?

The alternators on the Navarra's tend to be fairly honest when they fail, either they cause the batt lamp to glow at half intensity while running or they stay at full on. If yours is lighting up as normal and extinguishing when the engine starts then I'd be inclined to suspect something else TBH.

Cheers,