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Died on freeway, no power

Number4

"I'm counting to 3, then I'm getting your dad."
Elite Explorer
Joined
March 16, 2013
Messages
4,377
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281
City, State
Woodstock, GA
Year, Model & Trim Level
04 Ford Explorer 4.6l
Driving down the freeway and the Explorer shut off. Acts like there’s no battery at all. No sign of power.

Battery was fine, no reason to believe it or the alternator are bad. What would completely disconnect all power?
 



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Driving down the freeway and the Explorer shut off. Acts like there’s no battery at all. No sign of power.

Battery was fine, no reason to believe it or the alternator are bad. What would completely disconnect all power?
Measure the battery with a multimeter see how much it's holding. Also could be fuse
 






I was on the side of 285 and Atlanta with barely enough room to even park the car.

As AAA was going to be over an hour away, I decided to take a look at the battery terminals. The battery itself and the terminal connection was pristine clean. I just put the battery in a month earlier. Using a Leatherman and crescent wrench I was able to remove the negative cable, and notice some white powder falling away. I scraped the terminal and the connection with the file on the Leatherman, but still no power. Then I moved onto the positive connection and it clearly had oxidization on the battery terminal once the cable was removed. Smacking it and scraping it with the file on the Leatherman. It sparked when I put it back on and I had power again.

Again the battery connections looked clean with zero sign of corrosion, but there was enough oxidization to disconnect it.
 






I was on the side of 285 and Atlanta with barely enough room to even park the car.

As AAA was going to be over an hour away, I decided to take a look at the battery terminals. The battery itself and the terminal connection was pristine clean. I just put the battery in a month earlier. Using a Leatherman and crescent wrench I was able to remove the negative cable, and notice some white powder falling away. I scraped the terminal and the connection with the file on the Leatherman, but still no power. Then I moved onto the positive connection and it clearly had oxidization on the battery terminal once the cable was removed. Smacking it and scraping it with the file on the Leatherman. It sparked when I put it back on and I had power again.

Again the battery connections looked clean with zero sign of corrosion, but there was enough oxidization to disconnect it.
I had similar issues and I ended up replacing both terminals, added the felt pads, sprayed battery protectant but dielectric grease can also be used to prevent the buildup.
 






Terminal protectant spray for the win! Glad it was simple and you had your leatherman
 






I had similar issues and I ended up replacing both terminals, added the felt pads, sprayed battery protectant but dielectric grease can also be used to prevent the buildup.
Back in the day, we used petroleum jelly. Kinda messy.
 












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