major electrical problem. Help!

[hystericfox]

alright, I just got the engine rebuilt and i'm having a major electrical problem. the problem started after I bled the clutch and replaced the soft intercooler pipe between the blow-off valve and the intake manifold. When I try to start the car, nothing happens when I turn the ignition switch to the "acc" position, unless I jiggle the key, then the radio turns on. When I turn it to "on", the lights light up very dimly usually, but will turn on at full brightness if I jiggle the key again. This sounds like an ignition switch, but theres more. When i try to start the car, the heater fan and radio turn off, and nothing happens. when the key is switched to "on" and i press on the brake pedal, everything turns off. I should add that after the soft pipe incident, I could get the car to start if i got really lucky, but when i would turn the headlights on, the engine would die. When this originally started, the car had been running fine, and the headlight and taillight relays were making a buzzing noise, so i pulled them out. i tried putting them back in later and the noise was gone. Also, there are no brake lights, but all of the fuses are alright. i'm running out of ideas, please help!

 

[2.4 turbo Hyped]

Do you have a new alternator?

How is your battery voltage?

I want to help you but lets start from the basics and work our way up.

 

[hystericfox]

i'm not sure if it is the original alternator, but i haven't replaced it since i got the car. I don't have a meter to test the battery voltage, but i'm going to go get one tonight and test that.
all of the electrical accessories worked fine, but the headlights wont turn on, and the brake lights don't work.

 

[hystericfox]

alright, I had the battery on the charger while I was tracing wires to see if any of them were damaged, and just put the battery back in the car. It started on the first try and everything that didn't work worked again. Tomorrow I'm going to put everything back together and see if it still starts, it might have been a battery, but I don't understand exactly why that would cause it to die when I turned the headlights on the other day. wow.

 

[ADrewzki]

Maybe it's just your alternator not working properly. You stated that everything worked correctly once you put your battery on the charger. Could be your alt is fixing to go. Or your battery is a pos.

 

[steve]

Or your battery terminals are corroded. Don't just clean then where they attach to the posts. Remove the cables and clean and retorque them.

Check your battery and alternator by putting a volt metyer on the battery. Measure the resting voltage, starting voltage, idle voltage, and 1500 RPM voltage. Your battery resting voltage should be 12v or more. Starting shouldn't cause the voltage to drop below about 9v. Once idling you should see 13v to 14.5v but no more than that. Fast idling should be in the same range. If you see less that 13v check your alternator fuse before thinking you have a bad alternator.

Steve

 

[hystericfox]

it wound up that the battery took a dump. If i had a meter i would have been able to find out earlier without posting on here. it makes me feel like such a noob, finding out the answer was something I should have checked from the start. Thank you though, maybe the information in this thread will help someone else without freaking out about it like I did.

 

[turboawd95]

how can u tell if the alternator fuse is blown?

 

[2.4 turbo Hyped]

Its a fusible link in one of the underhood fuse boxes. 80 amps if I remember correctly.