Car died today

Jeremy-

I'm thinking the fusible link between the starter relay and the power distribution box has finally parted. This link feeds power through the PDB to the rest of the car-if it goes you lose everything.

For this to happen, I'm thinking you probably have a short or ground somewhere between the relay and the dash.

Good luck in finding it.
 
Birdman is on the right track, try that JJ. Also, the one time this happened to me many years ago, I found one of the small wires off of the starter ( may be part of the relay circuit) came loose off its terminal. Popped it back on and never happened again.

Get under there and have a look at your starter wiring.

Also, I've had a battery short out internally, causing a symptom very much like that. Do you have headlights etc.?
 
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Thanks Tony!

I'm checking it all out right now. I couldn't even roll my windows down or get any power to the radio when I first had it tower home. Then, I read some other electrical problem threads, and they mentioned cleaning up all of the contact points. When I looked at my battery terminals, the hot one had crap all over it. I went ahead and cleaned that one and the ground up, and now I can at least get power to the windows and car. That could be one of the problems. I'm going to take a look around and see what I can see next.
 
Yep, I have lights now. After I cleaned up the contacts, it's acting better. I'll jack her up and take a look tho.
 
JJanney said:
Car fires up fine now. This is weird. Maybe a new batter is in order anyway.

Run it down to Autozone JJ and have them throw the load tester on it... They'll tell ya real quick if it's the batt... Bad grounding can do that kind of wierd stuff too clean you Batt terminals... Also as we had talked before the ABS motor could be going bad it draws a lot of current and zaps the rest of the system when it's going out...

Ya could have called me the other night when it died...
 
I looked at the started, and there appears to be something hanging down off the starter. It does not look disconnected from anywhere, but I would think that it should not be dangling down there. I will see if I can attach it anywhere. I'll have a picture of the green stuff on the battery in a second.

The thing hanging under the car was the O2 sensor connector. I could not see anything dangling off the starter.

batcrap.jpg


This is a pic of the some of the crap that was on the hot connection. What is the green stuff? Oh and there was some white chalky stuff caked on there too.
 
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JJanney said:
RJ, it actually died this morning. By load test do you meant he battery?

Yep they can simulate the acc load on the batt for 45 sec or something like that and tell the condition of the battery.. They do it for free, you don't have to by a batt from them if you don't want... although I have two or their gold series in my truck with the diesel and they've held up really well...

RJ
 
I'm taking it down in a little while to get tested. I do not want to drive down now and die halfway. I'll wait for my roommate to get back.
 
Ok, sounds good. I am supposed to drive up to NSB tomorrow night, but I am not sure if I will unless I can get this squared away.
 
JJanney said:
Ok, sounds good. I am supposed to drive up to NSB tomorrow night, but I am not sure if I will unless I can get this squared away.

I wouldn't worry about it, you've got friends up here in this neck of the woods... You got my cell..

RJ
 
JJ-

For that greenish crap on the wires and connectors-mix some baking soda and water into a paste, apply with a toothbrush, let it sit for a minute or two and rinse off and dry well.

You can use vaseline to seal it from moisture and oxidation.
 
I pretty much took care of all of that, but I'll put a little vaseline around the end of it.

I sincerely hope it is not the ABS dieing. That would be a bummer.

I'm pulling over 12v from the battery. I just tested it with a multimeter. I have no clue what it could be. None of the fuses were dead in the fuse panel under the steering wheel either. If it were one of the fuse links, wouldn't the car die more often or not even start at all?
 
JJanney said:
I pretty much took care of all of that, but I'll put a little Vaseline around the end of it.

I sincerely hope it is not the ABS dieing. That would be a bummer.

I'm pulling over 12v from the battery. I just tested it with a multimeter. I have no clue what it could be. None of the fuses were dead in the fuse panel under the steering wheel either. If it were one of the fuse links, wouldn't the car die more often or not even start at all?

Yes JJ, the fusible link is either there or not... It won't be intermittent..

RJ
 
Went down to Auto Zone to pull my ABS codes, but they did not have the correct box (someone broke it). The guy there claimed that the ABS should not be able to suck up enough current to just turn the entire car off. He said maybe the TPS sensor or something. That does not make sense to me because after it stalls, I cannot start the car back up, if it were the TPS, I could but my idle would be shaky.
 
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