This morning I went to start my vehicle (2005 GMC Yukon XL) and when I inserted the key & turned it there were no dash lights, no interior lights and the vehicle did not start. It didn’t turnover or click… ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENED!!! Jump start from my wife’s car (2006 Chrysler Sebring) yielded negative results.
I hooked up my battery charger and after an hour the interior lights came on when I opened the door. Disconnected the charger and had no interior or dash lights, vehicle still does not turnover or even click…
Alternator is about 2.5 years old and battery 13 months old.
Possibly hazard lights were on all night because at one point I saw them flickering, checked the switch and it was in the “on” position. It may have happened when I slapped the top of the steering column out of frustration 5 minutes earlier. If it wasn’t that, then somebody may have entered my vehicle during the night and accidentally turned them on. I do not believe I left them on as I would have seen them flashing since my property is VERY dark where I park the vehicle …
Charger is currently on vehicle.
Can anybody advise what the issue may be or what I should try next? All basic checks point to dead/faulty battery and/or alternator. Just want to get it started…!!
Charge the battery and see if it actually takes a charge, It will take quite a while depending on your charger. A 70 amp hour battery will take about 8 hours at 10 amps (losses) to recharge if fully discharged. You should have a good idea after 4 hours or so if it has a chance of coming back. It should read 10 volts or so at that point. Let it sit an hour and check it again. If it holds voltage, keep charging. If it doesn’t…
But it could be that the battery has failed internally and it will not accept a charge. Then it is warranty time for a 13 month old battery.
After confirming battery, make sure the battery terminals are cleaned with a battery terminal cleaner. They can be found cheap at parts store.
Check the ground connection, and if a side post battery I had the rubber cover interfering with the conection.
Remove the positive battery cable and look for this.
Tester
if your terminals aren’t corroded, remove the battery and take it to an auto parts store. They will check the battery to see if it failed.
I left it on the charger for about 4 hours so far, charger indicated almost a full charge. I opened the rear passenger door to get my daughter’s backpack and the interior lights came on nice and bright. I shut the door & eyeballed the charger again and it indicated the battery was dead! Going to let it go a few more hours then switch it to “trickle charge” overnight so as to avoid over-charginging the battery and see where I am at in the morning. There was no indication that there was any issue with the battery and/or alternator yesterday, until today when she was dead…
Just want to start it and get it to my shop for a test of battery & alternator… battery is still under warranty. Thank you for your response!
If you can’t get it started to drive the vehicle to your shop, an alternative is to remove the battery and just take the battery to the shop. They can test the battery by itself to see if it is any good. This sounds most likely to be a faulty battery or a bad/corroded connection to the battery. In some cases if the battery gets severely discharged (for example leaving lights on overnight), that discharge damages the battery to the point it must be replaced.
If your charging overnight, I would unhook it from vehicle. I’m still pretty bent on the terminals being dirty.
Sounds like the battery has failed with an internal short. Take it in for testing. I will bet it fails.