Okay so today i took the 98 when I took my wife to a doctors appointment. Was fine with no problems going there. However when I went to start it this is what happened.

Turned ignition to accessories and thought I heard a pop(fuse maybe) and all electrical turned off. No power when turning key. No cluster, radio, brake likes or running lights. I did still have power to my power outlets to charge stuff and thats it.

So I popped the hood and opened the main fuse box. I had no way to pull the small fuses. So I pulled the large fuse and they were good. Checked the megafuse and it looked okay from what I saw. After I did that I sat back in the truck to wait on the tow truck. Decided what the hell I will try and start it again. Well guess what? all the power came back and it started. I got home and turned it off/on a couple times with no problems.


So here I am wondering WTF happened. Any suggestions or ideas?

 

....because ranger?

 

Maybe you jiggled something?

Weird though. Did you run through all of your grounds and stuff?

 

fixed

*****?






I'd start checking your wires for frayed/corroded ones. This was happening with my bronco when i had it. After a day of searching, I found a wire with no sheathing on it anymore which was touching my firewall causing it to ground out. shrink wrapped it and the problem never came back.

 

If that solved electrical problems, then I would do that for the golf.

 

What the kewn said. Sounds like you've got a wire grounding itself out somewhere. Its for sure odd that it happens. I've never seen it personally, but it sounds like a ground issue.

but the part thats sticking with me is that the whole truck went down. that sounds like a main battery line. are they clean? not corroded or anything?

 

Yeah I put a new battery in shortly after getting the truck in 2011. I'm going to double check things tomorrow when I have light. It was getting dark when all this went down.

 

i had this exact problem last winter. truck was doing it to me off and on for weeks. it started with the foglights working on/off. then the truck not starting and blower motor not working and progressed to what you have experience. i pulled the starter and bench tested it, checked and replaced a lot of grounds, tested my clutch switch, even went so far as to start pulling the ignition switch to test all my wiring. during this process i accidentally hit a connector undr the dash on the left side of the drivers footwell and the connector fell apart!

i realized the connector had the j hook style clamp to pull the connector together and it had worked loose and fallen off. i plugged the connector back in and voila! everything worked again. i have not had another problem since then.

it is usually the simplest dumbest things you would not think of that cause the problems with electrical