wont start no crank / no electric power

[TheBoosted96GST]

alright so i'm having this sudden problem, first off i have a stock 1990 Talon Awd, I went to the store the other afternoon, car's been driving perfecty fine. when i get to the store i turned the car off, go inside and get a few things. I come back out about 15mins later and go to start the car and i hear a light faint click (doesn't sound to be from the starter-guessing relay?). I turn the parking lights on (pop-ups) and they wouldn't even wanna pop up, the parking lights in the gauge cluster were really dimmed the auto seatbelts were clicking fast, but slowly moving until they stopped about half way, I tried jumpstarting it, and my car wouldn't even jumpstart, so i figured the battery must be toasted. I had my g/f go get a new battery from autozone, i put it in hooked up all cables went to start it, and apperently it sparked from the (-)negative battery post, i was in the car but my g/f told me it sparked plus i heard it from inside the car, it wasn't loud but definetly a sparking noise, after that I tried to put the parking lights on, there was no power to anything, no parking lights/no radio/no dome lights or interior lights not even the keylight ring on the ignition. So here comes the tow truck,when i got it home i checked all the fuses(inside and engine bay) - and all are good, i pulled the ecu out and the capactiors are fine,good news it's eprom baby i checked the battery cables everything looks fine, cleaned the cable ends really good to insure a good contact,tested the new battery and its good 12.6v, hooked the battery back up opened the door and i saw the door-ajar light on the gauge cluster lit up, so i figured maybe all was good, before i put the key in I turned the parking lights on and the door ajar icon turned off(this was done with the ecu out of the car), NO ELECTRIC power to anything in the car. It won't crank over, car showed no symptoms prior to it dying. i'm taking the starter to be tested tomorrow, any ideas?? thanks in advance

 

[ROOKIE1]

Same exact thing happened to me . It was the ECU . it was not leaking like the pics you see . It had just began to leak . No start sometimes other times compltely fine .

 

[ROOKIE1]

beware , if you decide to send off for a swap . With a place like Autozone or whomever , you likely will not receive the Eprom as an exchange . Repair first if possible .

 

[TheBoosted96GST]

hmm...not getting any electrical power is the cause of a bad ecu? my understanding was that it shouldn't matter if the ecu was plugged in or not the car should still have electrical power right? i looked at the circit board of the ecu and it looks perfect, it doesn't have any burns or discoloring nor does it have any smell to it, the car also had no symptoms at all before this, it would always start right up, autozone offers ecu swapping?? i'm not considering it just didn't know they offered it, what else could be the problem if its not the ecu? thanks for the help

 

[ROOKIE1]

I can not answer that 100% . That was the case in my car . Never tried anything with ECU out . I had a computer guy look at my board from the ecu . Replaced it , random start issues , gone . It would act like you said . Sometimes I get in it nothing . 5 mminutes later ,starts no problems . Good luck . It is late , so check tomorrow afternoon for more responses .

 

[ROOKIE1]

as far as the swap/exchange they used to . Not sure about it anymore .

 

[TheBoosted96GST]

I see, so in your case you'd get in and not have any electric power to anything and then sometimes you would? or was it just not starting? I'm baffled as to why the electrical power went out when I put in the new battery and put the parking lights on, and i'm positive all cables hooked up to the battery were correct. thanks hopefully i can get some more advice this car's got me frustrated

 

[ROOKIE1]

Exactly , most of the time it was all or nothing . Every once in a while , I would get in have power , Go to start and everything go out .

 

[TheBoosted96GST]

well after looking at my ecu even closer i noticed that one of the capacitors is leaking it doesn't look real bad but theres a tiny spot next to the capacitor the size of a pin head that shines aluminum and a little bit bigger of a spot where its blackish, think putting new capacitors will fix it? I'm uploading a pic to explain the damage, ignore the black circle with the red X i found a pic on another post, the red circle with the black spot and the red dot is excatly where i'm talking about theres a little bit of like clear coat from the board thats peeled just around the capacitor, think just putting capacitors in or is the ecu DEAD is there other options, other than buying a used ecu? where could I get it fixed, online?tv repair shop? any options? can i salvage the eprom chip? also its still not making much sense why even with the ecu outta the car I don't have electrical power, thanks for the help hopefully i can get some answers i need this car on the road asap

 

[luv2rallye]

Steve is the ECU guru and he repairs them also. PM him.

 

[TheBoosted96GST]

cool, his log on name is Steve? i'll pm him for sure, are they're any other options so i can perhaps check to see if i can get it done locally? and can someone for sure answer my question about the ecu being outta the car? cause even with the ecu outta the car it doesn't have electrical power, is it possible the ecu fried something else? thanks a lot for all the help

 

[InfiniteGSX]

an old friends Cavalier, the CAI rubbed the harness wires, and the wires touched... some odd reason the fuel pump relay melted and the ecu started smoking and half the wires melted...

Besides your ECU problems, the power stuff... seriously sounds like bad connections to the battery? Battery is charged but you go to do something with the ignition and everything shuts off and wont come back on. I'd look at everything from the alternator to the fusebox, to the battery, and back again. Right now I have my ECU completely unpluged and in a different room, far far away from my car, and everything on my car works. There is two big wires going from your alternator to the fusebox, its easy to access and unbolt, its bolted to a huge fuse, and on the other side it routes to the battery. Those two white wires you have on your positive harness. Then from there I belive it goes back to the fuse box, as well as the starter. Thats where your problem should be. Kinda sounds like, when you have a loose battery connection, lights and everything will be on until you try to put a load on it, and it severs the connection.

 

[TheBoosted96GST]

ya, i'm guessing its something in the battery wiring myself, i've just been confused on whats going on with it cause theirs no blown fuses, i had a problem with my 2g years ago i kept blowing alt fuses and it turned out to be those two white wires right at the alt where the bracket holds them from dangling around, i was thinkin i had the same prob. but no blown fuses? tomorrow i'll check the alt-batt wiring, hopefully i can come up with the prob, and hopefully this ecu isn't toasted. i hate dealing with electric, any other ideas will be appreciated thanks

 

[luv2rallye]

cool, his log on name is Steve? i'll pm him for sure, are they're any other options so i can perhaps check to see if i can get it done locally? and can someone for sure answer my question about the ecu being outta the car? cause even with the ecu outta the car it doesn't have electrical power, is it possible the ecu fried something else? thanks a lot for all the help

Yep Steve is his log on name. No locals - only an expert that repairs DSM ECU's can do it - and there's no way to test it other than swap. There are a number of outfits on the web that repair ECU's also but Steve will be cheaper and is the expert in DSM ones. ECU only controls power to engine. All interior stuff, headlights, taillights, etc should work. You have battery wiring problem or I believe there is a big fuse in the positive battery cable on the 90's (before it goes into the fusebox). Did you check it?

 

[TheBoosted96GST]

okay thanks for the info, so my ecu is probably still good, at least i can only hope, i was pretty positive it didn't matter if the ecu was in or not thanks for confirming InfiniteGSX and luv2rallye. ya i checked the fuse block with the 3 fuses on the positive cable, all fuses are good that's what has me stumped, and just suspension mods have been done to it everything else is stock, well actually I put in sylvania silverstar replacment housings about 3weeks ago, but the problems probably in the alt/batt wires/cables right? even with no blown fuses? i've noticed like a really faint crackling from the battery terminals (i think on the negative side when the battery was connected earlier) but not sure anyone have bad ground cables even tho they look good? or the same for positive cables? thanks a ton everyone whos posted

 

[steve]

Get a volt meter and start measuring. Since you have a new battery it should be reading about 12.6 volts at the terminals. Double check and make sure the the battery negative terminal is back at the firewall side. Make sure that both ground wires are connected to the negative terminal. Pull and measure the voltage at the fuse block terminals on the positive terminal and measure the resistance of the fuses.

The ECU could be completely out of the car and you should be able to tun on the headlight, crank the starter, roll the windows up and down, etc.

If you have any corrosion to the battery terminals, take them apart and clean them. Check all the wires to the battery too for corrosion.

 

[vinnio]

I think your grounding somewhere. Most likely the starter. Follow the positive wire all the way to the starter. You will have to remove ALL of the nice wire looms. Check the connection to the starter. If you find nothing there, check the ground side. You would think if there’s sparks after you tried to start it you would have melted a wire...
I hate electric stuff too. Good luck!

 

[TheBoosted96GST]

well actually earlier today i got a chance to start checking all my wiring, i found the problem, the a/c fan harness connector from the car as well as the connector to the fan itself was burnt up in one of the pins, i disconnected it and hooked up the battery, and all is good!! i'm assuming the reason it happened was that the wire that burnt through had the insulation (coating) around the wire on the car harness side was stripped off near the connector from age and heat and angle that it bends into the connector, some of the tiny braided wires inside it were broken. As i posted earlier on the ecu having a tiny burn mark along the trace..... would it be possible that the ecu caused the problem? anyone know what that trace leads to (pin #) or what it controls? i guess my problem now is my worry about the ecu, it didn't give me problems before but i'm hoping the trace that has the spot isn't ruined, i don't really feel like replacing the capaciators to find out the trace is bad, any ideas, thanks