Hey guys. Have the strangest thing going on with the rex. Was out of town for a while, and when I came back the batt was pretty low (as expected). Went to jump it, and as soon as I turned the key to the starter, the whole thing went out. Just straight up all the lights quit, everything. Checked the fuses, and all of them looked pretty good, and have power running from the outside fuse box, however when you turn the key, literally nothing happens. Any ideas? Tugged on some wires to see if anything was loose etc, but otherwise nothing at all.
Thanks for any ideas!

 

So once everything goes blank, and you turn the key back off... Do your dash lights come back on when you switch to IGN 2?

Is the battery you're jumping from any good? Are your leads any good? (try a different set if you can)

 

Yeah theres nothing going at all. I looked into it a bit more, and there's literally no power coming into the car at all. The outside fuse box under the hood has power on the 3 outputs, but there is nothing at all inside. No overhead lights, nothing. It almost seems like a fuse to the fusebox blew, or something. The battery and leads are all good, it just is an issue between the outside fuse box and the inside one...

 

Try pulling the plastic shields around your steering wheel off and check if the power isn't getting past your ignition switch when you're switching from 1 -2 and start.

 

Will try it out as soon as I can. I was thinking it might be the starter switch, so I tried jumping the pins where it hooks into the fuse box, but nothing there. I think power isn't even making it to the starter switch (aka ignition) in the first place...

 

Well, power goes from your battery to your starter, then from your starter to your under hood fuse box, then to your ignition switch.

Just work along the circuit until you're losing power and isolate the issue.

 

Update:

So tried running along the lines, checking stuff out, which it all mostly did. Pulled the battery, and ran another one in it (the other one was dead), and put the key in, and it lights up. However, as soon as you turn the key, something clicks under the hood, and the whole thing blacks out again. Also, the fuel pump doesn't prime that I can tell. Might be the main relay (unplugged it and replugged it to check it, but no priming pump). The way to reset the car to power when you put the key in again is just disconnecting and reconnecting the battery. Really weird. Gonna take it to a shop next week if I can't get her fixed... Any ideas are awesome!

 

Have you checked your grounds? Sounds like may have a short in your wires somewhere in there.

 

Yeah, it really seems like a short to me. Just not sure where. Checked the grounds on the battery terminal, alternator, and starter, as well as one behind the fuse box, but not sure past that... I heard the thermostat ground can be messed up sometimes too?

 

Alright, quick update:

Checked out more of the lines, and it appears there is some form of breaker of sorts that shuts down all the power in the car when a signal is sent to the starter. I say this because the starter, or something close to it "clicks" when the whole system dies. Also, the fuel pump still doesn't prime, but I think that is a separate issue. Manually checked the starter to see if it was busted, but it turns her over just fine, so not sure where the problem is...

 

Buy a NEW battery.

 

Got it figured out. Was bad power lines and battery system. Weird that it ran individual systems, but couldn't turn it over. Thanks for the help though guys!