I was driving home with the wife a few days ago. We were about 0.5 mile from home and going up a hill and gave it a little gas (not much and only doing 45mph). About at the top of the hill I felt a pop or thud, and realized my battery symbol was blinking and I’ve loss engine power (and power steering and brakes naturally) but I safely coasted to a parking lot. Put it in park and try to re-start it and it will crank but won’t turn over and doesn’t feel as strong. The weird thing is the starter will keep trying to crank with the key in the off or pulled out... but eventually stops. I checked all the connections and really only see 1 bad wire running to our hitch plug. Just has some corrosion but nothing major. I’ll fix that.

van has 147k on it with the 4.0L engine. New battery a few months ago. Regular maintenance and has overall done well with very few issues, outside some pesky EGR stuff I fixed cause it wouldn’t throw a code and only stall once in a blue moon during summer idling or very low speeds.

starter was pulled, looked ok. Checked out ok at the auto place. Battery checked out as well and connectors aren’t corroded. Alternator doesn’t look bad and it’s never given the battery symbol until now. Checked fuses for continuity and no luck. Pretty stumped at what caused it. No codes either. Any ideas? Fuel relay? Some magical voltage booster? Fuel pump? Some of these shouldn’t throw a battery symbol though....

 

Timing chain?