Lost power, died, now won't crank. Any ideas?

[TrinidadLR4]

Had my first outright failure today, coming home from WV. Truck is a 2013 with 117k. Starting gradually losing power at 65-70. After less than a minute, it shut off completely while driving. CEL and battery light. Coasted to a stop and tried to restart. Won't even crank. Weird terrain selection messages on the screen, followed by a 'low battery' warning. IID is showing no codes, which I didn't expect. Battery is less than a year old. No warning messages about charging faults. Thinking electrical - maybe alternator crapped the bed? Tried jumping it but it still won't crank and starter barely clicks. Will get it towed home tomorrow and investigate further but any other ideas are welcome! Thanks!

 

[greiswig]

Alternator and battery are the first things I’d check. Good luck!

 

[jlach993]

boss....I'd bet its the alt. I went through the same thing without any warning. As I'm now looking back I realized my HD radio wasn't functioning a few days before the rover crapped out on me. I read somewhere that for some reason when the alternator is crapping out the HD radio no longer works. I have no idea what the correlation is.

 

[TrinidadLR4]

Thanks. I never listen to the radio so I probably missed that part. Hoping it's that simple. Tried jumping it a couple of times and no dice. I'll dig into it later this week now that it got towed 200 miles to my house. Thanks AAA!

 

[jlglr4]

Strange that it won’t jump start. Did you have the jumpers grounded to the negative battery terminal or to the chassis? Just thinking that it could be a bad earth strap, which would prevent a jump start if you were grounding to the battery terminal.

 

[TrinidadLR4]

It was to the battery terminal. Could be bad earth strap. Is that the one in the passenger side wheel well?

 

[jlglr4]

Yes - I think that’s correct.

 

[jlach993]

Hmm try swapping in a fresh battery? Odds are that one was probably working overtime if the alternator failed. A new battery should get the truck running. I tried jumping mine with the old battery in mine and not even a click. In theory regardless of the battery being bad or good in a normal car it would start from the juice of the jumper pack or donor vehicle, but the Rover wants a fresh battery above 12 volts to start as well. Makes no sense but its what i went through with my rig. If it still doesn’t start then its something other than the alternator/battery…maybe a bad ground cable?

 

[TrinidadLR4]

After some investigation, looking at a potentially seized engine. Not good. Tried cranking it manually and it won't budge. Zero warning signs, etc.

 

[jlglr4]

That’s really strange. You don’t seem to have overheated, and didn’t notice any strange knocking noises before failure, right? Oil level is okay?

Could the car be stuck in gear, or the starter motor be stuck against the flywheel?