02 Durango wont start/electrical problems

02 Durango, 4.7L - 130,000 miles

Was fine Monday when my wife was running errands.
Yesterday, when you open the door, interior lights come on, everything seems normal when key is switched to on, but as soon as you turn the ignition to start, everything goes -completely- dead. All interior lights and the instrument panel go completely dark. Let the key go back to on, and the dome light and instrument panel will slowly(almost like everything is on a dimmer switch) start to come back to life. Try to start again, and instantly back to completely dead - even stepping on the brake at this point will kill everything.

Thought it might have been the battery, which was still under warranty so I took it in, and they tested it. Measured 736 cc amps, so figured it was OK - swapped the battery from my other car in just to make sure, and same result.

Positive battery terminal corroded through earlier in the summer, at which time I replaced that side. Figured it wouldn't hurt anything, so I replaced the negative side yesterday, too, but no joy.

Tried moving shifter around with some enthusiasm to see if it could be a neutral lockout switch issue, and tried starting in neutral, but all with no luck

At this point, it almost seems like a ground problem? If so, is there a good place to check first, or what would my best bet be?

Thanks so much for any help!!! well, u dont check a battery by measuring cc amps. it needs to be 'load tested' to see how it handles high current draw. u might wanna take the battery to one of the parts stores and have them do a load test on it just to make sure its ok. theyll do this for free.

when u say u replaced the 'positive and negative side' do u mean the whole cable, or just the cable ends? if it was just the cable ends, u could have a problem with one of the cables. sometimes if the cable ends get coroded enough, it can get under the insulation and into the cable where it attaches to the clamp. then it corodes the wires and can lead to the problem u got.

so to start with, make sure the battery is good by having a proper load test done. if so, check the other ends of the cables to make sure they got a clean tight connection. take the cables off the battery and clean the battery posts and cable ends with a wire brush or fine grit sandpaper til there shiny. then check the cable ends at the battery to see if corosion got down into the actual cable.

if none of this helps youll need to do a voltage drop test on the cables to check for a break inside one of them. Yeah, I wondered about the battery test results, too, which is why I took a known good battery out of my other car and put it in - same results.


The terminals were just the ends and I have had others suggest bad cables too.


In your opinion, at the splice on replacement cables a viable option, or do I need to go to the dealer and get OEM?

The from the dealer is $140, and the - isnt sold by itself, but rather as part of a harness, so I am sure that is $$$

I figure I could probably get the splice on's from the parts store for $40 or so, which this week seems much more attainable. not sure what u mean by 'splice on cable.' but u should be able to get decent quality cables at your local parts store for a lot less then what the dealer charges. My local parts store showed these as the battery cable options when I plugged in my make model



I'll give it a shot and see what happens

Thanks for your help! those look to me like a type of cable end that u splice into the existing cable. the problem with that is, if theres a break down further in the cable, using these wont help. u realy need to either replace the whole cable, or do a voltage drop test to see if the cable is actualy bad. If the cables do not fix the proble you might want to check the alternator diodes. This can be done by taking your car to your local shop and havent them tested. The alternator has six diodes three postive and three negative. It is also called a diode trio since each pos. and neg. diode are paired with the opposing diode.the diodes can cause wired malfunctions. The diodes can be replace but sometimes hard to find and alot of hassel my advice would be to get a new alt. hope this help let me know-Brandon bad diodes can keep the alternator from charging the battery, but they wont cause a no-crank cause theres no current going thru them til the engine starts.

id still rule out a bad battery cable or cable connection before looking for anything else. It's also possible you might be able to score some cables from the salvage yard. Bought 2 of the $11.99 ends pictured above, and it worked!

Thanks so much for the suggestions your welcome! sounds like if one of the cables had a break or corosion it wasnt too far back from the clamp, so u got lucky. glad u could solve it pretty easy and cheap. and thanks for letting us know the outcome.


topic closed due to being solved.Car Repair Talk's forum.