It don't run Billy, IT DON'T RUN!

[JoystyK]

Okay, so... Situation is this. We were tweaking with the car a couple days ago (Just bought this 97 clipse GS) and noticed it decided to start knocking, and got real bad in third, where it hit about 55 and cut out. Fine. Don't go over 55, problem solved right? Heh. So we took it back to the house and tweaked it a little again. The knocking we thought was the lifters. Still think so, as a matter of fact. Now, after a LOT of cleaning the engine out, etc, we try to start it. The battery went straight dry, overnight, and when we jumped it, it wouldn't even give accessory. So we're thinking that it's got something to do wit the alternator. IT RAN THREE DAYS AGO! Not now. It's depressing. I was looking to have alot of fun with this BEFORE we tweaked it. So now I'm running around in my 89 240sx, trying to find out what these problems could be... Any Ideas?

 

[1AWD90]

Did you actually test the battery? It almost sounds like a bad ground wire somewhere to me. But thats only my opinion. Best of luck

 

[JoystyK]

Well, I gave it a whirl, and Autozone said it just needed to be charged. The battery is less than a month old, and went bone dry. I know the Alternator can tweak te battery sometimes... So that kind of puts it in a little bit more favorable look at the alternator. I should probably take it in to a mechanic, but I'm so hellbent on doing it myself

 

[Shadow98]

AutoZone can test your alternator if you take it to them. When you say "tweaked" the car, what did you do?

 

[bling5tatus]

Keep in mind that VatoZone is known for giving bad advice... it doesn't require a mechanic's knowledge to work there.

 

[JoystyK]

We took out all the audio/visual, and my buddy started it (Without my knowledge!) with livewires everywhere(Possibly fried the chip?) then we took off a bunch of excess garbage that the previous owner jerry-rigged on it, such as a toggle switch for the cooling fan, a poorly wired killswitch, a grip of stripped wrong fitting bolts, etc. Stupid random things that we saw fit to do PROPERLY. And the next day, no power.

 

[bling5tatus]

Well, it's not necessarily a good idea to go changing a lot of electrical stuff at the same time because you will not know what caused your problem if there is one. I would try to put the car back the way it was and see if it works... then one by one take the things you mentioned off to see what causes a failure.

This isn't the best possible way to troubleshoot things, but it may help you.

 

[BUCK]

So Billy Nissan - SOLELY in the interest of evaluating your car & hence giving you the best possible reply / tweaks what exactly did you pay for this 1997 ECLIT Go Slow??

 

[Kickin Asphalt]

What did it do when your buddy started it? Did a battery light, CEL, or anything come on? It sounds like something is still grounding out. Check over all your connections and fuses. If the alternator was bad you should still be able to jump it so I wouldn't get a new alt. just yet.

 

[JoystyK]

Alright. Case closed. The wiring in the stereo region fried out and the battery lost all charge. We jumped it with an expedition, and got accessory. Nothing else. So, when I had a MORE mechanically inept buddy of mine come look at it, we jumped it again wit a mustang. He revved it full throttle for about ten minutes. Now it starts, runs, etc. Problem left: It's knocking REAL bad, in all gears. We're assuming it's either the 3rd or 4th valve/lifters. My buddy said it was a good assumption. So, to temporarily troubleshoot, we bled oil, and put some new oil in. the knocking almost faded out completely. But, we realized it's leaking bad in the underside. Again with assumptions... OilPan. Slowly but surely we're going through this car like a hot knife on butter. Things are smoothing out dramatically. We CAN take it to my Buddy's garage and utilize his supplies. So we're gonna mod the hell out of it. And by then, my Perf. Tuning class should be starting. So... Gonna take this bad boy to the lab at school, and create a monster. A VERY BIG THANK YOU to everyone who offered opinions, and help. It was greatly appreciated.