E450 motor just stopped. No electrical power

[aydodster]

I was taking our 2013 3107DS to emissions yesterday and encountered a really strange issue. After running for about 25 minutes the motor and all electrical just stopped. Nothing on the dash when turned the key and I was able to get it stopped. After sitting for a minute power came back and I was able to restart engine and get it to emissions station. On way home it continued to stop and restart after sitting for a 45-minute period.



Question to the owners of E450's out there is have anyone experienced this before? If so what did you find to fix this issue? I am taking it in for repair shop to look at and would like an idea of where to point them in advance. Thanks Patrick, 2013 Sunseeker 3170DS

[Duckogram]

In order for your chassis power to up and die you have to lose connection to both your battery and alternator. The common point that would do that is likely to be one of two basic parts. Those are your ignition switch and your main fusible link. Either one of those parts can crack and cause a power disconnect when heated then reconnect when cooled. Should not be too hard to diagnose with a meter. YMMV

[aydodster]

thanks for the tips. I will pull out the schematics on the engine and see if I can track down the main fuse and the other items. Would be nice to fix them without a shop charge Patrick

[5picker]

Sounds like a connection somewhere opening up when the vehicle warms up and gets hot.
Then after sitting and it cools down, it makes connection and away you go.

You are going to have to do some detective work with a meter and when it quits, start tracing voltage, beginning at the battery(ies)

[PenJoe]

Have you tried a diagnostics test to see if there is an error code?

Also, your rig is 5 yrs old and you may have battery cable corrosion. We had a vehicle last year that started when it chose and quit when it chose to. The battery cable was replaced, but the ground cable was not. When inspecting the ground cable, the cable itself was corroded. Once that was replaced, the vehicle started and ran without fail. Less than a $10 fix.

The most commonly overlooked problem with electrical systems is the ground.
There is no fuses with a ground and most often everything works or nothing works. And that is what you are describing.

[Philkaty]

all of them seem to have what to start with.

[Garrette]

I have a 2014 Sunseeker 3170 DS. Please post the cause and correction when problem is solved. Thank you.

[18CrewDually]

First thing to check is battery connections. Next is to have the batts load tested.

[cariboo camper]

Originally Posted by PenJoe

Have you tried a diagnostics test to see if there is an error code?

Also, your rig is 5 yrs old and you may have battery cable corrosion. We had a vehicle last year that started when it chose and quit when it chose to. The battery cable was replaced, but the ground cable was not. When inspecting the ground cable, the cable itself was corroded. Once that was replaced, the vehicle started and ran without fail. Less than a $10 fix.

The most commonly overlooked problem with electrical systems is the ground.
There is no fuses with a ground and most often everything works or nothing works. And that is what you are describing.

X 2 Also probably the cheapest place to start, easy do it yourself.

[Total Loss]

Loose or corroded ground would be my first guess.

[MR.M]

shouldn't need the battery except to start unless alternator is bad . but if the alternator is good once you start up the engine you can remove the battery and it will still run . sounds like he has issues with connection to alternator or ignition switch or both ,

[Bamaman]

I used to have a Taurus that would just cut off--usually in heavy traffic. Click, and it wouldn't run. After waiting a few minutes, click and it ran great.

The problem was a poor designed Engine Control Module. There was insufficient air flow over a heat sink, and the module would overheat.

It's not cool to lose power in the middle lane of 7 lanes of the Atlanta I-285 traffic in rush hour. There were lots of very mad people when I stacked traffic up about 5 miles. Needless to say, I got rid of that puppy.

[onetonford]

If you passed the emission test than that means you didn't lose power from the battery as the ecm would loose the keep alive circuit and your emission test would of failed. I would think you have a short for the main switch power which has a auto reset breaker in line so you need to find the possible short from some system that is overloading the breaker.

[Wolverine 1945]

Originally Posted by Total Loss

Loose or corroded ground would be my first guess.

X2 !!!

[RacerRalph]

Originally Posted by PenJoe

Have you tried a diagnostics test to see if there is an error code?

Also, your rig is 5 yrs old and you may have battery cable corrosion. We had a vehicle last year that started when it chose and quit when it chose to. The battery cable was replaced, but the ground cable was not. When inspecting the ground cable, the cable itself was corroded. Once that was replaced, the vehicle started and ran without fail. Less than a $10 fix.

The most commonly overlooked problem with electrical systems is the ground.
There is no fuses with a ground and most often everything works or nothing works. And that is what you are describing.

On my daily driver the ground was corroded at the body attachment point, not the battery.

[Wolverine 1945]

Originally Posted by RacerRalph

On my daily driver the ground was corroded at the body attachment point, not the battery.

Very Normal I Believe !!!

[IsleDog]

when it shuts off, does it seem like its running out of fuel, or like you turned the key off?

I have a chrysler as a daily driver, and there is a not well known issue (took LOTS of digging to find) with the power cable (not ground) from the battery to the fuse box. dash would blink on and off rapidly as the engine got warm. the crimp on the cable was done incorrectly at the factory. adding a second, known good cable fixed the issue. upon inspection everything looked fine. cable ends looked correct and proper.