OK so I was driving around yesderday doing errands all day with no problems. I stopped to grab some dinner and when I tried to start the truck back up, nothing. No click from the starter or anything. Here's the strange part, the radio will work, and with the key in the 'on' position, the truck emits a buzzing noise similair to the sound when you have the door open with your keys still in the ignition. Also, the gauges including the speedo and tach the needles are going all over the place. Also, in between the buzzing noise, a stange noise coming form the relay box in the glove compartment. I opened it up and found it coming from the relay on the far left. I pulled it, and the noise stopped coming from it, but it still has all the other stuff going on. Anyone? any ideas?

oh, and I got a friend to jump start me thinking it was the battery, but it BARELY helped. Took like 20 minutes and a whole bunch of cranks to start it. Each time it would crack only once then stop.

 

Sounds like your battery just died. I've had other cars go nuts like that when the power was there but extremely low. I would have that battery tested.

 

Maybe bring in your alternator also.

 

If the battery is truely bad, the charging vehicle will have to sit on it for alteast 10minutes (in my experience) before you should even try cranking it. On the first crank, if it doesn't turn over more than once, another 10 minutes before trying again is necessary. Also, the length of time depends on the battery and alternator in the charging vehicle and largely on the quality, size, length of the jumper cables being used.

I too would suggest you have your battery and alternator tested.

 

Would a dead battery cause all the wacky stuff I listed? I've had dead batteries before in other vehicles, never saw anything like that.

 

Do you have an AC Delco battery?

If you do, I'm betting on the fact that you have a corroded positive terminal.

On my Bravada, I went to start it about this time last year and it was dead. Everything inside worked fine, go to crank it and everything would turn off. I jump started it to move it out of my way for the time being. When I came to move it back, it started right up no problems. Tried it a few times and it was fine. Move it back to where it was parked and tried to start it again and it refused, no click or anything, but still interior lights and radio would work. Decided to pull the battery out and when I was loosening the positive cable, the entire lug in the battery came out and acid poured out into the tray!

 

Nope, it's a newer battery.

 

Yep, the battery post has been replaced twice on my K-5 and had the exact same symptoms. When the battery is really low on power it allows some relays to work, not work, or work intermittently. I figure the computer has to be having a hard time too.

 

I would still remove the cables and clean up the terminals on the battery to make sure that corrosion is not the problem. Your symptoms seem to match mine from when I had the lug corrosion.

 

+1

Indeed... Battery corrosion can cause so many headaches. Stuff will go wacky if you dont have a good ground. Ive even seen a truck where the speedometer acted like a tach because of a bad ground.