Hey Guys,

My truck has recently reached its 100k mark and must be having a mid-life crisis. If you check out my other threads from a couple months ago you'll see what I'm talking about. Anyway, to why I'm here.....

I drive a 2003 2dr 2wd S-10 Blazer. I've been having some minor issues (nothing to bring me here), but other than that its been running fine. Today after work, in some random Condo complex, it decides not to start. $h!t.

I put the key in and turned the ignition, the car starts but quickly stalled (like when you don't turn the key long enough). Tried it again, same. Tried it again..... Nothing. No dead batt clicking sounds, no grinding sounds, nothing. All of my lights, gauges, etc went off as if it were a dead batt; its NOT the battery (attempted a jump). To make it worse, it will not release my keys. But then ~5min later everything turns on (not engine obviously) and I can take my keys out. To make it more interesting my gauges then went into a full epileptic seizure for about 5 seconds. I jumped the car for about 10 min then tried again, same, nothing... At all, just locked keys and no power. This cycle repeated itself another couple times till I threw in the towel and called a tow service.

Well you hopefully you know my situation, so what now? I know it's not the batt. and it isn't the same symptoms as other bad starters I've been cursed with with past vehicles. It would be nice if it is a relay or something trivial. Either way I'm stumped and the big 'ol internet has nothing on the symptoms. If anyone of you recognise this, or have heard of these issues, please let me know as I don't want to be charged $150 to replace a relay switch. (This will be my first time hiring someone to work on my car in over 3 years!)

Last time, symptoms:
1) Will not start
2) No dead battery, but all power shuts off.
3) Gauges seizure
4) Keys locked in for approx. 5 minutes

Sorry for the long post, and thanks for any advice!
-Dark Rider

 

Thanks for all the great advice!!!

Turned out to be the Internal Computer System which in turn shorted my altenator's internal relay. All in all $670.

Hope this thread comes in help to someone....

 

Oh no...the same thing happened to my daughters '97 the other day. Car started and ran fine then lost ALL power. Not even a horn, no headlights, no dash lights. Keys locked in ignition. Clock and radio presets were wiped out. Waited 5 min. Jumped car...started up and ran fine. She said it did the same thing twice more. The car started the third time and continued to run fine for the next few days. Is this a sign of more bad things to come? The car has a strong newer battery, clean & lubed terminals, and new starter.