So just recently my Dakota hasn't been starting and it happened out of nowhere. Initially we thought it was the battery so we bought a new one and put it in and it fired up immediately but now it won't start at all, really. Or at least not with any consistency. A few days ago when I'd go to turn the truck on, I'd get no dash lights or noises or anything. It was like there was no power going to anything in the truck. Today when I go to start it I'm at least getting dash lights and my headlights come on. All the lights go off when I try to crank it though. Initially it was just one click when I'd turn the key and everything would shut off, now all the lights go off and it's multiple clicks, kind of like a dead battery. But the battery is less than a week old so it can't be that.


The other day my dad got it running somehow and I'm not sure how. He said he was just messing around with stuff in the engine bay and then it started. I'm not sure where to start looking. The alternator is fine, the battery is brand new, could it be an ignition switch or maybe the battery cables?

 

You have a bad connection somewhere. I would start at the battery, verify all power feeds are good, clean, and tight, then do the same for the major grounds.

 

By major grounds you do mean the grounds coming from the battery correct? I checked those and they're all tight and clean. The wires to the fuse box aren't loose either. I've disconnected both terminals and cleaned them as well. Is it possible one of the wires from the battery is bad? The last time it started the battery was reading around 14v.

 

I bet you have a ground loose at the block or even the power lead at the starter.

It could also simply be the starter solenoid going bad.

 

So we got it to start today after messing around with it for almost 2 hours. We took out the battery, disconnected the wires that go from the battery to the fuse box, pulled the fuse box out to check if there was any burnt wires/fuses and they all looked good. We checked the grounds in the engine bay and they were all tight and looked good. We cleaned the terminals and tightened them down and the truck started up no problem. Didn't even sound like it was struggling to start. I know if you leave the battery disconnected for a bit it kind of "resets" the computer but I really don't want to have to disconnect the battery everytime I get out of the truck. Could the computer be bad?

 

don't know until you let it sit.

I still wouldn't rule out a starter solenoid or the fact that you disturbed/undisturbed the PDC connection.

 

Let it sit for 24 hours with the battery disconnected and it started up no problems just now. Haven't gone under the truck to check the solenoid yet but will do that later today. Looking at it from the top of the engine bay it looks like the original starter which is impressive for a truck with almost 200k miles on it. Will report back when I check the starter connections.

Also I should add all of this happened after the ignition fuse blew while we were using an air compressor to put air in the tires. My father used the cigarette lighter for the compressor instead of the 12v port. Could that have caused a short somewhere? I checked the fuse for the cigarette lighter and it's not blown and it doesn't look burnt or anything.

 

If the fuse didn't blow, likely it was just coincidence.

 

So after unhooking the battery everytime I turned the truck off, it's starting to look like a parasitic draw somewhere. After the ignition fuse blew and we replaced all the wrong fuses the previous owner had in the fuse box the radio, wipers and blinkers would stay on even with the key out of the ignition. I pulled the fuse for the radio and the radio stayed on but the wipers and blinkers went off. I'm at a loss currently, but at least I've got a way to get the truck to consistently start so I can still get to work. Any ideas on where to check first?