Help, I can't get home!!!!!!
 

Hello All,

I have a question. I own a 97, Ford 150 Extension Cab. I went out at lunch and my battery was dead. I did not leave lights on or anything. I checked everything to make sure it was not on. Anyway, I hear a clicking sound near the fuse box. I checked but I cant tell where it is coming from. It even clicks when the keys are out of the truck. Does anyone know what could be causing this or have any ideas? Thanks Jon

My 99' firebird did the exact same thing. Turn the key and clicking, remove the key and it continued to........click!

I checked out all connections, battery, altenator, starter, belt, etc. (even local auto part store said my starter, battery and altenator was fine). Through a process of elimination by using functioning parts from another vehicle, it turned out to be the altenator and worn belt. I had to re-charge the battery as well. (I think the worn belt killed the altenator and drained the battery?). Never found out why it clicked like that though.

Can't you jump the vehicle at least to get you home. I had that problem on our contour - not the clicking but turned out to be a bad battery post. Try another battery from a friends truck.

Silver Bullet

the continued clicking is odd, sounds like a bad wire almost, but clicking normally just means dead battery, might have just lived its life, try to get a jump and if the batteries old replace it, you should anyway, after that, head to a shop and have em check it out

Check out the ground to the GEM. remove the kick panel on the driver side. There are black wires with green terminals screwed into the body. If they are corroded or loose it will cause the clicking.

JMC

Another common problem is an internally corroded battery cable. It may look fine, but be almost completely broken inside the insulation.

Good Luck.

Firegrunt

I have a 98 F150 and had the exact same thing happen at a 6 island gas station with people waiting behind me. I heard the same weird clicking noises and all. Got a new battery and it all went away. When devices that are designed to run around 12 volts see something much lower they will behave that way particulary relays which I believe you are hearing. My battery didn't even show any signs of degradation before hand. Something more than likely opened up inside. I noticed this past weekend that my local AutoZone is now carrying the Optima batteries which there is a good chance that yours is also. Darn good batteries.

It was the battery
 

Thanks all for the advice.
Jon