No lights or radio; won't turn over. Battery is fine

Question

I have a 2002 Chevy Silverado 1500. My buddy replaced my fuel pump recently, and while he was dropping the tank he broke a fuel line, so replaced that as well. About 4 days afterwards, my check engine light came on and it said it was the fuel tank pressure sensor. I had a professional replace that, and about 4 days later the check engine light came back on and said it was the fuel tank pressure sensor again.

I ignored it and drove the truck for about 2 months. I could smell a small gas odor every once in a while. Yesterday I was leaving work stopped at the gas station and went to start it, but it wouldn't start. I had it jumped and it started, so I took it home and now neither the lights or the radio will come on, and it won't turn over: no sounds at all. I thought it was the battery, so I had that checked out, but its not the battery.

I'm at a loss as to what it could be. A day before this happened, when I started the truck all the lights turned off, so I switched them off then back on and they all came back on. The next day is when it broke down. Can anyone tell me what it could be?

Answer 1

Time to get out the test light or multimeter and follow the wires. I'd start with the ground side. Pull the connections off the battery, clean the up really good. Follow the ground cable and make sure the side the goes to the body and / or block are good and clean. Test that you get 12v between an unpainted metal part of the block / frame / body and the positive side of the battery. Be sure to check this when the lights and radio are not working.

Next follow the positive cable. This should go to a fuse block. Verify a tight connection here and that you are getting good voltage. Again, test while things are not working. Test the fuses by making sure you have voltage at the input and output sides. Follow that in the cab and check the fuse block there.

I am expecting at some point in the line, you will find a loose and / or corroded connection. You want to find where you are getting voltage and where you are not to determine where this break is.

Answer 2

So i took the battery out again and decided to clean the corrosion off the battery terminals 100 percent put everything back on and everything is working lights and radio and it fired right up i drove it around the block no issues and the check light engine is gone im so confused its been broke down since thursday

Answer 3

The ground that is connected to your fuse box, inside the truck isn't keeping it's connection. Check there🙂

Answer 4

I am not a connoisseur of electrical/electronic components. However, I could surmise based on my limited knowledge from powertrain calibration and research, that;

The changed (new) fuel line doesn't corroborate with the OEM calibrated ECU, this induces an anomaly between ECU (calculated figure) and the actual state (in the fuel line). Therefore, as the magnitude of the anomaly increases over time, a sensor reads a conflicting value from ECU's calculated value. Now, some (self-learning) ECU adapt to the change, other ECU pops up an OBD error, which could've been the "engine warning light" in your case.

And on the first trial of fixing the issue, the professional could've removed the OBD error, I take. And over time, as per my assumption, the error popped up again.

The fuel pressure in the lines have to reach a pre-defined value before cranking up the engine, due to this calculation anomaly, the ECU couldn't manage to attain the desired Fuel-Pressure before cranking, to perform a start-up.

I have no clue how to relate these to the electrical line failure.

Anyhow, I hope my speculation is relatable.