Truck Doesn't Start
 

My truck was running fine, then stopped to get a drink and died. Theres only a clicking noise from the fuse box. I jump started my truck it ran fine back to school. Got there and it wouldnt start agian, just reads as battery is extrememly low. My cables were corroded pretty bad I cleaned them about 3 days ago. Any ideas, guessing cables.

If the battery is reading low, and the cables were corroded, you might want to start by charging the battery on a charger over night.

Depending on how long this has been going on, you might want to have the battery tested and/or replaced.

Don't rely on the alternator to charge a battery that is low, it will not work so well, and you run the chance of damaging the alternator.

Well. We put my cable on a we bit better, and it starts. Im going to get my cable replaced very soon. Its too much of a pain I dont want to do it so my mechanic is going to replace it. Today was the first time it read low before starting, so low it wouldnt start. We messed with the cables and it has started atleast 10 times without problems now. Just need to replace the cable I bet.

A less-than-ridiculously-tight battery terminal will corrode very fast. This is because so much current is pulled when cranking the engine, the little bit of the metal touching isn't enough to provide the needed current. The result, it will spark and leave behind little divots in the metal on both the battery terminal and the cable. These divots are then very prone to corrode as they have a lot of surface area exposed to the elements. This continues until you have a nasty cable and battery terminal.

I would get some emery paper (think cloth sandpaper) and thoroughly clean both the battery terminal and the cable. This exact thing happened to me on my '99 Tahoe. Once cleaned up and tightened, the issue was no more. However, if you battery is damaged, you still might have to replace it. But before you go out and replace the cable, just try that first and save a few bucks :)

EDIT: and since you seem to have already done this, I would see if you can run this a while without build-up on the terminals. If so, you're probably golden :beers:

I agree with sscully... Get that bad boy over to an auto parts shop and get the battery tested. if its dying,,, there is a reason. Although,,, corrosion is a killer! But corrosions usually starts bogging down over time. They tend to get sluggish with time. the more they corrode, the worse they get. But leave it to electrical problems to do some strange things!
Test the battery, and give the alternator a test too, and ya might as well replace those cables if ya cant clean them. The Zone has some really neat battery post and terminal cleaners that i keep in my tool box. just in case.

Have the alternator tested, too, while you're at it.

Got my wires fixed, everything checks out fine.