The Explorer became California for a few minutes...

[n2knee]

Something weird just happened yesterday. My Explorer suddenly lost its electrical power for a few minutes. This is what happened:

1.) I entered the truck
2.) Cranked the engine (or shall I say tried to crank the engine)
3.) The engine cranked once and that was it. No more electrical power. The headlights would not come on, nor anything that was supplied by the electrical system of the truck (alarm, engine, etc.)
4.) I tried to crank the engine once more and no luck. I didn't even hear a spark. No sound at all.
5.) I opened the hood and checked the battery connections. It seemed ok. No problems at all. I closed the hood and went back inside the truck to try my luck again. To my delight, the truck finally started.

Do you guys/gals know what went wrong? Is there anything I need to worry about?

 

[TDG]

PAY YOUR ELECTRIC BILL (If you can)

I have seen battery connections that look good and seem to be tight go bad. When you checked the battery connections you might have tightened it up enough to make it work again. (Even if you just wiggled it) Make sure everything is clean and tight (with a wrench) unless you like people staring at you in the parking lot of wherever with your hood up. On the other hand you might want to consider taking another job to pay your electric bill.

 

[mrboyle]

Sounds like you have a bad ground. Like TDG said, when you wiggled the cables the bad connection was moved just enough to make contact and allow the vehicle to come back to life. Remove the battery cables and clean both the connections and the posts on the battery. If either cable end is chewed up or worn enough that you can not reinstall it (tight) to the battery, its time to replace the cables.

 

[tdavis]

I've seen this problem before.

It comes about because the power generators are price gouging.. er, no, wait, it was bad positive cable.

Mine would start sometimes, and other times everything was dead. I'd even find the radio's clock being reset..

Solution? Bad positive cable. It appears to flex sometimes, and eventually breaks inside the insulation. The cable is thick, red cable coming from the positive lead to the starter.