Intermitten no start

godavid

SCCoA Member
I've replaced the cam sensor, ignition switch, VSS. Last night when I tried to start it after driving about three miles it acted dead like the battery was drained. So I let it set for about two hours and try to start it again, same thing. After playing around with the shifter moving it around in the gears AOD, it did not start. I started moving the light switch in and out till the light seemed bright enough to try to start and sure enough it started. This is really weird. The car acts totally dead and then just by moving the headlight switch it come to life again. I know the battery is okay. One other thing when it wouldn't start I got out and raised the hood and the positive post on the battery was hot. The ground post was cool. That to me seems like a short somewhere, but I don't know. Hope someone has an idea, what to do next? thanks
 
If a short somewhere is causing the positive battery terminal to heat up, then, assuming that both battery terminals are the same size, the negative terminal will heat up as well because the same amount of current is flowing through both terminals. If only the positive terminal is hot, I would suspect a damaged positive cable. Take a battery jumper cable and attach one end to the positive battery terminal and the other end to the large terminal on the starter relay (on the fender) that the positive battery cable connects to. This is the terminal that has 12 volts even when the ignition is off. DON'T connect the jumper cable to the other large terminal on the starter relay as this will cause the starter motor to turn. Check if the car now starts easily.
 
Thanks, for the info. What I'm seeing now is the sometimes it won't start when I've driven it awhile. It acts like there is no power but when I jiggle the shifter and/or the light switch the power comes back on, enough to start it. It almost acts like a coil that separates when it gets hot but what coil can cause the car to have not power one minute and fiddle with a few switches and the power comes back on? I was just out in the garage running the car to fill the ac and it starter several times. I did notice that one of the cluster lights appeared dim then I moved the key to off and on again the light came on brighter. I changed the ignition switch, could the lock cylinder cause loss of power? thanks again
 
Loose or corroded battery terminals and possibly a bad ground or positive lead.
My 89 did exactly the same thing and the ground lead was so hot it actually started to melt the battery case where it was touching it.
Turned out to be the crappy universal battery terminal i had on the negative side.
Cut off both positive and negative terminal and installed some high grade car stereo terminals.
It also did weird things like you describe(enough to lead you down the wrong path) when i played with the key and various switches long enough it started(none of them actually made any differance it was just when the battery made good enough contact through arching by playing with things).
All has been well ever since.
 
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