Has anyone had this happen to them yet?

malkavian · Post by **malkavian** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 2:34 pm

Cleaned the inside of the crew out yesterday. I accidently turned the dome light on and my battery was dead this morning. I jumped it off and went to work. All of my digital dash read outs were out, the radio, gear indicator, and my compass/temp gauge. So Im thinking I fried something but when I jumped it off I did it by the book so I was inclined to thing that I didnt hurt anything. So Im driving after about 2 mins all the digital stuff comes on. The next few stops on the way to work and no problems. As Im driving I push the dome light over ride button once and thing push it again and the vehicle chimes kind of like the door open chime. I stop after work to get a bite to eat and get back in start her up and the digital stuff is out again. So I hit the dome over ride button again just to see if it does anything nothing hit it agian and it chimes and the digital read outs come back on. Is there something that hitting that dome over ride button twice in a row does that would affect the digital read outs?

Post by **HenryJ** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 2:59 pm

You sir , have Gremlins!
That button must be poking one in the ribs.

The only thing I have heard of related to dash readouts is a faulty ignition switch.

I would double check your battery cables, clean and tighten them. Then if your battery is close to the five year mark, consider replacing it.
A bad battery can kill an alternator in a hurry. Alternators are not designed to charge a dead battery. If you need to jump it to get home fine, but when you get home use a battery charger to charge the battery all the way back up.

Since you are considering a new alternator I would suggest that it would also be a good time to upgrade the battery if you have not already done so.

I like the Optima. They are a sealed lead acid spiral cell battery.No mess. Dual posts. Great reserve capacity and cranking power. Outlast the flat plate batteries.

Odyssey dry cell batterieswould be another one i would consider. They are very expensive though. However it is possible that two batteries of equal power to the stock battery could be installed on the same amount of space. If I were looking to go dual battery , it might be worth consideration.

Either of these batteries is a long term investment. They can easily last ten years and most people do not keep vehicles that long.

jeff024 · Post by **jeff024** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 6:00 pm

the only thing that hitting the Dome overide twice should do is turn your automatic headlights on or off

Steve2003 · Post by **Steve2003** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 7:23 pm

jeff024 wrote:the only thing that hitting the Dome overide twice should do is turn your automatic headlights on or off

Please explain!

Steve

SONOMA915 · Post by **SONOMA915** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 8:40 pm

Steve2003 wrote:
jeff024 wrote:the only thing that hitting the Dome overide twice should do is turn your automatic headlights on or off
Please explain!

Steve

Its in your owners manual. I think you turn the key on and hit the dome override button about five times in a row. When you here the chime your drl's should be off.

F9K9 · Post by **F9K9** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 8:42 pm

No key involved. Just tapping the dome light overide will disable the AHLs till next restart.

jeff024 · Post by **jeff024** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:11 pm

you should only need to push it in and out about 2 times to turn the lights but like f9 said its just till the next restart or you can turn them back on by hitting it 2 times again

malkavian · Post by **malkavian** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:40 pm

Yeah picked up a optima red top battary about a hour after I wrote the above. I played around with the ingnition switch for awhile to see if that might be it. It hasnt done it agian and I have been running since I picked that optima up this afternoon. If it starts doing it again I let you know.

barch97 · Post by **barch97** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 5:27 am

There have been a few occasions where I have found that my son has been playing inside my truck and left all the interior lights on until I discover them the next morning. This has NEVER resulted in a dead battery. Having left your dome light on over night is not nearly enough to kill a good battery. I suspect yours was on its way out before this incident.

F9K9 · Post by **F9K9** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 5:39 am

barch97 wrote:There have been a few occasions where I have found that my son has been playing inside my truck and left all the interior lights on until I discover them the next morning. This has NEVER resulted in a dead battery. Having left your dome light on over night is not nearly enough to kill a good battery. I suspect yours was on its way out before this incident.

All lights should turn off in 20 minutes or is that not an option for all years of Crews?

barch97 · Post by **barch97** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 6:41 am

maybe not, the four round lights in the over head console have been left on for much longer than that without the key.

Post by **HenryJ** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 8:33 am

barch97 wrote:...Having left your dome light on over night is not nearly enough to kill a good battery. I suspect yours was on its way out before this incident.

Agreed.

On my truck the two front adjustable lights do go off after a set time. The dome light stays on as long as I have it switched to on. My dome light was replaced with the Audiovox entertainment system unit. It includes a dome light with a three position switch: auto-off-on

I don't recall if the rear adjustable lights go off automatically? We are supposed to have a battery saver feature function that shuts off all accessories when the battery reaches a preset level.

Most of our batteries are at the age they should be failing. Although I have not been using my stock battery , it has served the remainder of its useful life in my wife's car. It died not too long ago. Five years is respectable for a stock battery. They are due.

It might be a good idea for those still running the stock battery in the 2000-2002 crew cabs to upgrade the battery. A weak battery can really be hard on the alternator. Another thing to consider is rebuilding the alternator. I would rebuild it for sure at 100k miles. Mine had worn 50% of the brushes by 50k.

border man · Post by **border man** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 6:18 pm

HenryJ wrote: I died not too long ago.

Henry is gone, where do I send the flowers.

Post by **HenryJ** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 6:43 pm

I think this old laptops key board is getting a little tired. Either that or I really should slow down and proof read ALL my posts

F9K9 · Post by **F9K9** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 8:50 pm

malkavian · Post by **malkavian** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 11:55 pm

you bunch of pirates jacking my thread just because Hj is gone ..

oh yeah my bad.

Well have not had the problem come back since I put the optima in saturday and it is monday 1:30 am now.

jeff024 · Post by **jeff024** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:25 am

crew cab sonoma · Post by **crew cab sonoma** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 4:10 am

sorry to bring this up again, i just read it. but regarding the dome overinde button, but pressing it 3-4 times, (until you hear the chime once)
it is able to turn off both DRL`s AND/OR AHL`s, until the next ignition cycle...

Post by **Walt** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 7:13 am

You can also slighty (very slighty, not anough to cause any braking action) depress the emergency brake pedal to keep the automatic lights from coming on. This works as long as the emergency brake pedal is depressed.

Blaze One · Post by **Blaze One** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 1:34 pm

crew cab sonoma wrote:sorry to bring this up again, i just read it. but regarding the dome overinde button, but pressing it 3-4 times, (until you hear the chime once)
it is able to turn off both DRL`s AND/OR AHL`s, until the next ignition cycle...

That's interesting