Right after I pulled out of the parking lot on my way home from an evening cruise my car died and i had to pull to the side of the road. I had no lights, radio, nothing. Once I got to the side of the road I was able to start it again and everything worked for about 10 seconds then it died again. This went on for a minute or so with power coming back on then off on it's own until I was able to start it and it stayed running fine and I drove it home with no issues. Looking for ideas on what might cause this, bad battery shut off switch ? Fuse ? Aliens? so I can prevent it from happening in the fuure. Any ideas will be appreciated. Thanks
I would go with aliens... Depending on how its wired, my primary cicuit runs through a circuit breaker. same thing happened a couple times to me, after along search found that the circuit breaker was cracked, replaced it and it hasnt happened since...
Obviously your car wanted to stay when you wanted to leave! I would look at the back of the ignition switch for a loose connection and trace it from there. Check your positive battery connection and everything that goes to the starter. Its gotta be something dumb and easy to fix. Do you carry a hotwire with you? That's a good way to jump out the ignition switch and might get you home another time. Bob
I had a similar problem with mine. Ended up being a connecion on the realy p*** through (from inside the car through the fire wall). Mine died on a busy highway at night...scared the **** out of me. Black car, no lights, coasting off the highway with "people" fliying by at 80mph..
I would say Aliens, I was told by your Local Airport that they spotted some UFO in your area causing a lot of havock with electrical problems on cars & trucks!
check the connection on the starter. had it a couple of times. it can cut power and back when you are coasting...BANG!!! every thing full of un burnt gas and then spark!!, scare the **** out of you !!!
Thanks for all the responses. definitely some good ideas on what to check. Will have to go through the car tomorrow to see if I can find the culprit. Thanks again, the HAMB is awsome!
narrow it down by whats wired with or to what. If you are losing all that stuff all at once and its all wired to the key, the tumbler could be worn and its bouncing from run to off. This can sometimes be sooo easily overlooked! ~Good Luck!
The way to narrow down who is the culprit, is to recall if the lights are powered thru the ignition, for example. Seperate out any circuit that is powered on it's own. If you lose everything, I'd start w/the ground lead or similar major circuit connections.
bad battery shut off switch ? If you lost everything, like there was no battery at all or one side had been disconnected.... That should be self explanatory on where to look. Start at the battery connections and main leads to there final destination, grounds and power. A cut off switch can be great place to loose a connection.
I had that happen,on the selinode battery side could be loose dirty,Battery cable clean,the 2 bolt battery end dirty.Could be your safety switch on off .
I agree with all the posters above....do us a favor, when you find out what it is, post it so we can all learn from what happened.....Thanks!
Like the other guys said, probably a bad connection somewhere. If you haven't tried this already its worth a shot. Quick way to find it (most times): 1: Turn on everything that was shutting down 2: Go through any suspect areas and wiggle. Move the wires around, lightly tap the switches/relays/circuit breakers ect., should see everything die when you get to the right area... 9 times out of 10 I've been able to find the problem this way...
When my battery was in the front of my merc , I had the same problem. The battery cable would move with air flow and short out on the exaust manifold, and kill everything. Stop the car , cable would move, everything would come back on... Drove me NUTS.. Moved battery to the trunk, No more problem.. Hope you find your gremlins..
Do you have a generator for the charging system? If so, I have had the regulator cut-out relay stick closed. So if the engine was idling at a low rpm, and the cut-out is stuck, then it may be possible to kill engine, and everything else. If you have an alternator, it may be possible that the main diodes in the alternator are intermittently shorting.
When the battery was moved to the trunk, the cables were also replaced and routed properly. Therefore no more problem.
Some aftermarket switches are made on the cheap.... and perform that way after some use. Ditto, begin at the battery,...and work your way to the rest of the components. 4TTRUK
Checked all connections under dash, starter, shut off switch etc. Everything looked good and was tight. When I traced the main ground cable to where it was mounted to the frame I found a very rusty/dirty bolt and washer where it was mounted. I'm thinking I may have been intermittantly losing my main ground at least I hope that was the problem. I sanded the frame to nice clean metal, cleaned and sanded the lug and put a new nut,washer and bolt throught the frame. Hopefully that will solve the problem. Thanks for everyone's advice.
You should also put a ground from the back of your block or head to the firewall. Many ppeople do not put this ground on, but look at older factory chevy's they all have it. Missing grounds can cause alot of problems. Also badly crimped connections can cause alot of frustration, that is why I learned to solder.
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