Turn key...No Elec pwr, no lights/sounds, nothing works, can't shift out of park. Batts good.

[CAGerringer]

Was driving this afternoon, backed into a low fence rail. Put it in park and checked it out. Cracked tail light lens. Drove for another 20 minutes stopped put it in park, and shut it down. Came back in 10 minutes, went to start it and it was dead. No electrical power. No lights. No clicks. Nothing works. No windows, radio, or interior lights. Cant open the rear hatch because the lock has no power. Absolutely nothing is getting electrical power.
Any ideas?

Charlie
2008 Explorer, 4.0 V-6, 2WD

 

[94Eddie]

If you haven't already, the first thing I would do is check the status of the battery and then the positive and negative cables at both ends. Was there any other damage done besides the tail light? How old is the battery?

 

[CAGerringer]

Checked batt, has 12.7 volts and is 2 weeks old. The cables at the batt end are clean and tight. I'll be getting underneath tomorrow. There was no other damage.
Charlie

 

[CAGerringer]

Checked batt, has 12.7 volts and is 2 weeks old. The cables at the batt end are clean and tight. I'll be getting underneath tomorrow. There was no other damage.
Charlie

Also tried to jump it and had no effect. No sign of any power at all getting to the car.
Charlie

 

[CAGerringer]

Also tried to jump it and had no effect. No sign of any power at all getting to the car.
Charlie

Also tried to jump it and had no effect. No sign of any power at all getting to the car.
Charlie

The reason I even mentioned the cracked lens of the taillight, is because I had to trip the Brake-shift Interlock to get the car out of park to tow it. In the Owners Manual on page 277, there is a blurb about this. "If it is necessary to use the above procedure to move the gear shift lever, it is possible that a fuse has blown or the vehicles brakelamps are not operating properly."
The lightbulb was replaced as it was damaged. Is there an interlock that shuts down power to the car when the brakelight fails???
Charlie

 

[CAGerringer]

The reason I even mentioned the cracked lens of the taillight, is because I had to trip the Brake-shift Interlock to get the car out of park to tow it. In the Owners Manual on page 277, there is a blurb about this. "If it is necessary to use the above procedure to move the gear shift lever, it is possible that a fuse has blown or the vehicles brakelamps are not operating properly."
The lightbulb was replaced as it was damaged. Is there an interlock that shuts down power to the car when the brakelight fails???
Also, which fuse would affect power going to the shifter?
Charlie

 

[CAGerringer]

The reason I even mentioned the cracked lens of the taillight, is because I had to trip the Brake-shift Interlock to get the car out of park to tow it. In the Owners Manual on page 277, there is a blurb about this. "If it is necessary to use the above procedure to move the gear shift lever, it is possible that a fuse has blown or the vehicles brakelamps are not operating properly."
The lightbulb was replaced as it was damaged. Is there an interlock that shuts down power to the car when the brakelight fails???
Also, which fuse would affect power going to the shifter?
Charlie

I just noticed I never put the solution to the problem. The first Batt was bad, so I replaced the Batt with a new one. Still didn't solve my problem.
Turns out after a week plus of trouble shooting, the second (brand new) Batt was also bad. Go figure. I can't believe I had pulled everything I could to check the circuits and in the end, it was another faulty Batt from Advance Auto!!! To make the story even worse...the first Batt that failed was still under warranty, so I got the "new" one free. Both were DieHards. Took the "new" one back after it failed, and paid extra for an upgrade. No more problems. Live and learn.

 

[azpima67]

Back when Diehards were a Sears brand, I swear that they intentionally failed with a month or two left in the warranty so one had to get another Diehard to use the warranty!

 

[Blackhawkxx]

Thanks for letting us know the fix. New bad parts sure does mess with you when trying to work out a problem. Two in a row is really bad. Glad you worked it out.

 

[D Hook]

I stopped using Diehards several years ago due to the same experience you had. Went to Motorcraft and have had very good experiences with them.