Really bad electrical problem...

[Falcon305]

Tonight when I got back home, I rolled the windows up like I usually do while the car is idling. Right when the windows finished rolling up, I heard a click and then my Pioneer CD player shut off. The windows won't move anymore, the power locks don't work and it almost seems as if anything having to do with "power" doesn't work. Then when I twist the headlight knob to the off position, the headlights still remain on.... I have HID's but I doubt that has anything to do with the problem. I can literally take out the key, manually lock the door, close them and the lights will still stay on. In order to shut off my lights, I either have to unplug the battery or turn off then turn on my car (which I found out today).

So then after I turn my car back on, the lights cut off but the car idled very weird. It would suddenly rise up to 1500 RPM and drop back down to 1000 RPM, repeating over and over in a few second intervals. I'm scratching my head wondering how? This electrical problem has a bad habit of not happening for a while then coming back to bite me when I least expect it. The bad part is last time this happened, the battery ended up dying and leaving me for stranded on the road. I had fun pushing my car and walking alot of miles most of that day too...

My alternator is basically new (only months old) and same with my battery. Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

 

[luv2rallye]

I assume you've checked all fuses. Either the headlight relay is "sticking on", or you have a bad ground in the lighting control circuit, but most likely your headlight column switch is intermittently bad.

If your headlight column switch is good, and that is hard to tell with an intermittent but it's #1 suspect, then look for a wire shorting to ground or another wire. Look first in wires going to the headlight column switch, then at the mass underneath engine fusebox at wires around headlight relay (disconnect battery 1st).

 

[boostedjay32]

You didnt say you checked your fuses.... check them... it can be a simple as that

 

[420a_turbo]

HID's installed incorrectly could actually be the cause. Im assuming you are using the OEM switch to trigger your lights to come on. Which would mean you got a plug and play kit, most likely. Did you solder in a diode to stop the power from going back into the circuit/switch? Are you using the OEM headlight harness for your plug and play?

Depending on the draw of your balast, you may need to upgrade the gauge of the wire on your harness. You have to have the power coming straight off the battery, thats why they stay on w/key off. I would bank on your HID's not being installed correctly. Otherwise they would turn off when you turn the switch off in the car. Your switch may be bad now, and thats why its now doing it too.

Switch could've gone bad if there is no diode on the line between the ballast and switch. It will make the ballast try to draw the power through the switch as well as the battery if no diode is in place. A diode makes it so power can only travel one way in the wire. If the power/power draw went back or came through the switch it could've toasted it. You should probably have a bad fuse somewhere too!

Hope this helps. HIDs are awesome, but they are not as "plug and play" as they are made out to be. The initial power drawn with the ballast is alot higher current then it ever takes to use your OEM headlights, thus the need for a larger gauge relay. A fuse between the balast and battery is a great idea too! Once the balast has ignited the lamps they require less power to run.

 

[1AWD90]

I always use a relay to run all my HID's. Pretty simple and always insures you get all the power needed to your ballast from your battery and not your switch.

 

[Falcon305]

Update...

Sorry, forgot to mention that I have a clifford alarm with autostart, plus my clutch pedal is rigged so that I don't have to press it to start the car (pretty much like an automatic car). Brake pedal is rigged so that whenever it is pressed after autostart was initiated (with the key in the ignition of course), it will disengage the alarm and the CD player will start up. Well today after checking the fuses with a friend (who's more familiar with electrical work) and using a volt meter, everything looked fine in the interior junction box underneath the steering column. We didn't check the fuses in the engine bay fuse box because we didn't feel it was necessary. Although if we really should have done so, then i'll go outside and check it real quick.

But my battery was drained down very low (something is causing this) and when trying to crank the car, it wouldn't start. Although due to the attempted cranking, it's as if something reset because the CD player turned back on, all the power windows and power interior functions came back to life (1 day of no power to interior felt like forever!) So my battery was still drained and I got a jump start. While the car was running, the volts on the battery were dropping. So just to make sure the alternator was doing it's job, we checked the charge on the alternator and it was perfect (alternator was professionally tested last week at a shop, charges perfectly. Bought it in june). So then I went to my local advanced autoparts to go get the battery checked out and the scan came back as "good battery" (it's only a few months old), exactly what I figured.

So after making sure the basics were out the way, my car was running pretty well after it's initial jump and would even crank up well while turning it off/on (stupid but brave decisions). Problem disappeared on it's own, which is good, but then again it's bad because I know it will bite back... Which it did... On my way back home, the interior lights/cd player kept cutting off and coming back on (around the same time I would press on the brakes). Battery was draining down to nothing and my battery light/brake light were lit. I'm starting to think my alarm may have something to do with this possible grounding situation... Any helpful ideas or suggestions?

Damn it, I hate electrical work with a passion!!!

 

[rvaughn]

I would put money on it being your alternator 'fusible link'. Its in your under hood fuse box, it can be a pain to get out but I would bet you anything you blew it... even if it doesn't look bad, go to the store, buy one, they are only a couple dollars, and replace it, report back with your findings please! If you need more info on it let me know, I can dig up some more details but Im sure you can get it! I would be very surprised if you replace this and it doesn't fix the problem...

 

[Falcon305]

Thanks everybody for the input. The problem was actually the positive battery terminal. The actual terminal that attaches to the positive post was fine (which I checked both terminals over a hundred times ), it's just the 2 bolts that hold the electrical wire in between the terminal were a bit loose, resulting in a bad connection. Once tightened correctly, everything worked fine! A volt meter test prior, when the bolts weren't tightened, showed the battery dropping at an interval of 0.1 volts per few seconds (initially at 13.5 volts or so), even when the car was idle with the alternator trying to charge it. Once the bolts were tightened right, the volt meter showed the battery maintaining a steady charge, around high 12ish volts and rising slowly (my guess is it was getting charged back to the 13's by the alternator).

I was shocked how such a serious/annoying problem resulted in something so easy that was overlooked.

But none the less, i'm still proud because the problem is solved!