I hate DSMs! Electrical Problems. [Merged 2-9]

[NJGSX96]

Well the other day I went out and bought a new alternator and battery for my 1G. Of course the bolt for the alternator was in backwards and couldn't come out without removing the turbo/manifold/O2/exhaust, but thanks to my friend Phil and his Sawzall, that was a minor issue. Anyway, when I went to the parts store, they had a 75AMP and 65AMP. The 75AMP is for automatics, but was identical to the 65AMP, which was for manuals, so I went with the 75AMPer. Why not, right? Get it installed, everything plugged in, clean up the battery connections, install the new battery, fire it up, all good. This was Monday. Tonight after work I go back to the car and figure I'll add some goodies I got for my b-day while the car is down. About an hour later I have installed my nice new cockpit adjustable hallman MBC and I swap out my plug wires for the NGK wires I had on before since my Magnecors bit the dust... again. That is it. I do nothing else. Plug up the laptop, start the car, fire up TMO, log battery. 5 seconds into starting the car I hear a high pitched occillating whine and with it the lights are dimming and brightning. TMO battery log looks like I am logging O2 dipping to 11v and rising to 14.5v over and over. Finally steadies at 13.9v and the whine becomes constant, whih is coming from the alternator. I let it idle for 10 minutes. All looks good. I got out for a little test drive and as soon as I get to the bottom of my hill the log shows 12v and i can see the lights dim! Every time I come to a stop it dips to 11v and the dash lights for battery, coolant come on, then go off. I get back home as quick as I can, and park it. At this point the lights are all dim and the log shows 11.6v.

Is this for real? Is my alternator already f#cked up? In all my years of driving I have NEVER had to replace an alternator. is this common for them to die or come bad out of the box? Is the 75AMP not compatible with my car? Where the f#ck do I start to check now or is it just the alternator?

 

[ivatu]

first of all well the baterry light turns on randomly and then turns off then the water temp gauge goes to the top and in i accelerate the car then goes down showing the normal temperature also i found that the battery is leaking what could be this.

 

[MY1GDSM]

Check the Wires for the Coolent Temp. sensor if they come lose the Gauge will do wierd things...

 

[ivatu]

where i can find them?

 

[MY1GDSM]

I'm not realy sure on a 2g N/t But it should look something like the turbo one so here's a few pics to look at.... they should look about the same and be in the same genral area.... I beleave

 

[ivatu]

well i was working with a problem with fuses of the ligths and brake ligths and the thing is that when i turn on the lights the water temp goes to the H instatly !

 

[tbonitz301]

I have checked out your other thread, and i think you should go over anything you have done to the car recently. Somethings shorting out

 

[ivatu]

well man thanks ill do that

 

[r1991_4g63t]

your temp sensor if i remember right is also in the thermostat housing on the 420a

 

[ivatu]

ooo ok yeah ill check that to

 

[ivatu]

well to let everybody know the proble was that the battery was touching the hood and this was causing all the problems

 

[STI2TALON]

my coolant temp sensor wire was frayed and when i taped it up the same problem went away

 

[2gsxRuiz98]

So all my electrical started to short all at once while driving. I got home and searched and decided to see if my battery was arching on my strut tower bar. After removing the split loom from the group of wires coming off the positive terminal this is what found.There were two of these wire loops, one went from the 100A AMP CHOKE to the positive terminal, the other went from the next row of fuses down and then to the pos. terminal as indicated by the green arrows. My first question would be, is this the proper format for this fuse wiring?

These wires must have arched because the ends were burnt as you can see below

Next I also found the positve wire from the 20A (cond.fan vent. cond) *(marked with the red arrow in pic) fuse was spliced into one of the wires mentioned above. Is this normal or even exceptable.

 

[luv2rallye]

1) yes that is stock and it's a 100A fuse not a choke.
2) yes this also is stock and correct.

Ckeck all the other wires under that fusebox for shorts, frays, broken, melted, etc.

 

[BoostedTalonTS]

... and while you are at it, replace that dual 10AWG run with at solid 4AWG wire.

 

[2gsxRuiz98]

I will get some four guage wire installed, so should I go ahead and splice that 20A fuse wire into one of the four guage wires?

 

[2gsxRuiz98]

I was in such a hurry to get to the parts store I forgot to thank you guys for replying.
Thank You

 

[luv2rallye]

...so should I go ahead and splice that 20A fuse wire into one of the four guage wires?

yes with 12 gauge or larger (larger = smaller number).

 

[lowandsleekDSM]

Ok, after my rebuild on my engine i`m STILL running into problems (and i started this rebuild in Feb. i think? ) Well now, i`m having electrical problems. Heres what happened - I went to start my car for the first time in a couple of months after replacing the front case and did a BSE kit. Well oil started to leak out of the bottom of the timing case so i turned the car right off, but the car started right up. Well after thinking i should start the car again to find out where the oil was coming from in the first place i decided to run the car again and thats when it happened - the car did not crank over at all. The battery is not dead all my fuses are good. When i go to start the car, thers no buzzing noise or anything like that nor did i mess with anything with the electrical system or anything other then wire up the oil pressure gauge but that was simple, the car started up fine all the time except for this one time, its just sounds like something is not getting power, possibly grounding off. But could it be just a bad ignition switch? possibly a bad starter? (the starter is still the original starter). Im not sure on where to begin here....any suggestions?

 

[nlzn]

If you can narrow down to where the sound comes from it'd be a lot easier to figure out what's going wrong. Worn or burnt out gears inside the starter will cause a buzz. If it's going out eventually they'll break off or it will seize. Most places around here (autozone, advanced) can check starters to make sure they're still good.

 

[the_mork]

Try to turn the car on, if you hear a click coming from the passenger side under the dash then that means the starter relay is still good. The next thing to try is to check if the positive wire going to the starter is getting power, just use a meter and ground the other side while someone holds the key forward. If the starter is getting power then its almost certainly the starter which is an easy fix.

 

[lowandsleekDSM]

Actually thats my next test...i have to have a couple of people help me out on that one of course. But i did here like a buzzing noise coming from the cabin area....didnt know where it came from though it was not really loud...but..noticeable. ive heard it before when my car was working like last year.....i would turn the key and it would buzz a little bit and then i would turn the key off...and try again and the car would start right up....it was an out of the blue kinda thing. But heres a question, my dad took an ohms meter to the power wire (hooked up to the battey) and touched a ground....and the meter said 200 ohms, which he said he thinks there is a dead short some where and the battery was drawing about 11 volts? Hmm....ill test the starter first, thats my idea at this point b/c i used the starter to prime the oil pump a few times...and then the car started right up...and then...turned it off and then the car wouldnt start....so i dont know.

 

[SD99GST]

So here's the scoop... I swear my lucks the worst.

So my HID's go out on the left side, they have a warranty but i cant get a hold of the dude i bought them off, a distributer, anyway. I decided for a temporary fix I would just go get the stock bulbs and throw those on until I find the dude or buy a new HID kit. So i go to auto zone, buy some 9006's and throw them on completely removing the HID hardware. Cars fine go over to my cousins house about to go out for the night when he asked me how the stock lights look, i told him nasty check them out opened the driver door flipped them on and my horn went off in a constant tone and would not turn off... The way i turned it off was to start the car and turn it off, as soon as the car was turned off the horn shut off as well.

Now, with the car off, i try and turn the headlights on again and the horn would start right up again. Now this time I started the car and flipped the lights on and off and they would not turn off, no response to the switch what so ever. So i finally give up, I say i better go home and park it, so what i do is i started the car before turning on the headlights and it works fine no horn. I start making my way back home when i notice nothing on the car is working.
The stereo turns on but you cant here anything out of the speakers. None of the ac or vent system is working, power locks dont work, no power windows work, none of the accent lighting is working, nothing but the lights, brake lights, and turn signals is working properly. The car begins to idle nasty, reving up and then down constantly right above one thousand RPM's. Another thing, the battery light is on very dim and so is the emergency brake light... but i mean very dim. Would not notice it in the day i bet.

Im going to let the car sit the night but what should I look for in the morning, any ideas?

 

[turbobluers]

maybe check the connection to the battery

YES.. and,

Not familiar with the HID's... did you have to tap any wires to install?? if so, when you removed, any bare wires, grounded, etc? did you have it hooked up to a bad circuit?

If you just installed bulbs or had all wiring correct, put a multimeter on alternator when car is running... check to see what voltage and amperage you are getting... or easier yet, go to autozone or advance or local auto parts store to have battery and alternator checked... heavier draw from HIDs COULD have caused something to fail...

Poor amperage to ecu and systems could cause ALL of the problems you described.

 

[SD99GST]

No Complete Plug n Play on the HIDs, no cuts or taps anywhere to the harness of any kind. The battery is strong, its a Optima full charge has no problem cranking. But i will connect a meter to it tomorrow. Battery connections are all fine. Clean, absolutely no corrosion on posts located in the trunk. Strong ground as well. Thanks for the replies by the way.

 

[turbobluers]

I'm leaning towards alternator.... unless that doesn't happen to be it, then we will go from there...