Electrical issues, yay!

2004 V8, no issues like this before today. Went to start the car and there was no power when I moved from ACC to start.

At first there was no start chime but the lights, clock + mpg + temp orange bar were lit. When I moved it to start there were no lights on the dash except the red battery if I held the key there. I checked battery terminals; all good. Then I looked at fuses and tried wiggling plus pushing down on them (wasn’t sure which one to pull to check). When I tried again, the start chime plus more dash lights came on (trac, vsc,…ones with normal start) but when I moved the key to start there was a buzzing sound and the dash lights slowly went away.

This was at the neighborhood park and was with my 2 year old so couldn’t stick around to diagnose anymore. Plan is to go back in the morning with a multimeter to check the battery first.

That said, since “more” power came after I pushed on the fuses, I’m wondering if it’s not a battery issue. Maybe a bad fuse or a relay that went bad? The only other thing I could think of was when I tried the very first start, I accidentally turned the key real fast all the way through to start. Not sure if this could’ve done something.

Any thoughts? Anyone have a similar experience or can point me to which fuses or relays may cause this? I’d hopefully like to bring some fuses with me when I go check it tomorrow. If it’s one of the cube relays, it’s going to get a bit tricky to decide which one to buy and bring a spare.

First off, what happened when you put the multimeter on it?

I had this same issue with my dad's Lexus Rx. i got some power to certain things but no crank. When I hit the key everything shut off. Put my booster pak on it and same thing. I pulled off the battery cables and behold, corrosion. It did not show above or below the cable ends. Cleaned the ends and posts and it fired right up.

I would start with the basics first, make sure all connections are good then go from there.

Won’t be able to check it with a multimeter until the morning.

I didn’t see any corrosion on the terminals when first looked to make sure they were tight. When I go back I’ll pull the cables off the terminals completely to look just in case it’s something similar to what you had.

Following up in case someone else runs across this too; just something for them to check.

Ended up being the short pin in #25 slot. I pulled it and saw some oxidation on the pin legs. Cleaned them up, reinstalled and no more power issues. Going to go through my other fuses and make sure the stabs are all clean.