NC/NS to Full-Blown Electrical Mayhem

[AkihikoA60]

Hi all,

 

New here! My wife has a '14 Journey SXT with the 3.6, which has been acting up on her recently. Pretty similar to what GriffinJourney was reporting this week with his. We drove it around doing errands on sunday and it was completely fine. On monday she complained of a no crank no start, which I confirmed when I got home, and cleaned all the grounds under the hood, put a new starter fuse and relay in, tried starting in neutral, and smacked the starter. Nothing. Tried jumping it with my car figuring maybe the battery was on its way out, and after I tried jumping it started freaking out on me, flickering lights, thermometer reading -40F, not detecting the key, the whole nine yards. Additionally, when I try the dead key battery method (pressing the start button with the fob), it goes into accessory mode and I can hear relays clicking wildly under the hood, mainly the wiper on/off relay but also the hi/lo and main relay a little bit. They do not stop unless I pull off the remote negative terminal.

 

Haven't tried checking battery voltage at the remote terminals yet, but she says the battery is maybe 3 or 4 years old. I have not had issues with batteries of that age in the past but maybe Journeys are sensitive to that sort of thing. I know they do not have the best electrical systems so I will be upgrading the grounds as per Dean's guide.

 

I am confused as to why it only started doing this after jumping, before it was a pretty straightforward no crank no start, now it's going crazy. If it matters, I was jumping it with a 4-cylinder. Considering trying with my Supra instead. I am hoping it's just a dying battery and not a short somewhere; I was not getting any voltage or charging warnings so I'm pretty sure alt is okay. Can anyone tell me what an acceptable voltage reading at the remote terminals is, and/or general advice or things to try? Thank you very much. 

[5rebel9]

Sorry to hear of your issue, not fun when away from home to have happen.

As for electrical(battery), it is not just volts but cranking amps available in the battery. And as us  "old timers" would say, a dead or dying cell inside the battery. 

Not the most fun to get to the battery but good clean posts and cable ends at the battery are critical for keeping the overall system happy.

MY "bet" is dirty battery connections and a dying battery.

[AkihikoA60]

7 minutes ago, 5rebel9 said:

Sorry to hear of your issue, not fun when away from home to have happen.

As for electrical(battery), it is not just volts but cranking amps available in the battery. And as us  "old timers" would say, a dead or dying cell inside the battery. 

Not the most fun to get to the battery but good clean posts and cable ends at the battery are critical for keeping the overall system happy.

MY "bet" is dirty battery connections and a dying battery.

I am definitely planning on pulling the battery today and taking it to an auto parts store to get tested. I'll have to pull the wheel and fender liner; poor design but not really too big of a deal relatively speaking (I just fed this car all new brakes and both front wheel bearings) and from what I can see from up top, the posts and connections on the battery itself look pretty crusty. I'll give those a good clean while I'm in there. Thanks for your reply!

[2late4u]

going to all the trouble of pulling the battery, JUST replace it as 4 yrs on a journey is pretty good, they like a strong battery... that said make sure the connections are clean and tight when you finish and use some anti corrosion spray as well....make sure you replace with the correct size and group number as well,,,you can have the old one load CHECKED along with the ALT  at your local part store using the remote connections under the hood where you jumped started it..welcome to the group as well