aquaholic

well after 2-1/2 years of bliss my car is throwing a fit. i took the cover off today, removed the battery tender and brought the car out of storage. after a nice 50 mile ride i shut the car off in the driveway. it restarted fine and while sitting there idling i got a message on the dic that said service traction control then got the reduced power message. car was sitting there idling fine with the check engine light lit but had no throttle response. i shut it off and checked for codes. then i disconnected the battery for 10 minutes, cleaned the terminals, hooked it back up. now the dic flickers, the guages go berzerk, fuel pump relay in the fuse box buzzes and i can hear things turning on and off rapidly, and the car will not start. just clicks when i turn the key. i drug out the battery / load tester and the battery checks out ok. it is an 8 month old optima red top. thgen, just for kicks i put in a new battery and the same thing happenned. wtf happened to my car. it's a bone stock 99 A4 with 14,600 miles and absolutely NO mods. could this possibly be an ignition problem?? ground lug on the starter??

cliff_ford

Did you have the AC on when driving? If so check the passenger foot well to see if it is wet.

aquaholic

passenger footwell is dry. thanks for the reminder, i forgot about that. went out today turned the key to the on position (with a new battery). same thing happened again. did it 6 times and guages bouncing around, dic flickering, funny noises coming from inside the doors, etc.. every time i turned the key to the on position. on the 7th time i put the key in everything acted normal and the car started right up and idled fine. did that 4 times and it started every time. on the 5th time i put the key in it acted up again. did that 5 times and on the 6th time it acted totally normal and fired right up. would spraying contact cleaner into the key slot hurt anything in there?

cliff_ford

I don't think contact cleaner will help. Do a search for Bill Curlee's post about about faulty ignition switches.

Greg_E

Did you check for the wire in the door that shorts out? Pop out the accordion boot and check it.

aquaholic

i'll check both doors today. thanks. it certainly cant hurt, but i'm really thinking its the ignition. i found bill curlee's description of how to repair the ignition switch. i need to remove mine also and i'm not sure of the order in which to remove the dash panels. does the plate directly under the steering wheel come off first?

dgrant3830

I agree here too.. check that accordian tube for the wire that has problem contacting the frame.

SDPC

I think you should also recheck your battery connections, considering it started doing it immediately after you unhooked the battery. Just sounds like it could be a simple bad connection

cam99

Check and clean all the ground terminal blocks. See Bill Curlee's post for locations. Start with the ones in the engine compartment on the rails near the radiator and hinge for the hood.

aquaholic

i did clean all of the ground locations and it does do this with all of the 4 batteries that i have tried this week. i will check those accordians tonight.

aquaholic

i checked the accordians in the doors and the wiring looked fine. i pulled them off of the door side. the car side didn't want to come out. anyone know which side the wires usually rub through on? i also pulled the ignition and found 2 sets of burnt contacts.

saw22

Now I see why such an interest in my thread. Sounds like my symptoms are slightly different, though.

I've been through the door wire issue once before and used liquid electrical tape to cover the exposed wires. What spurred my interest in that was the driver's button panel stopped working.

If I were you, I would check and clean all the grounds:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=896875

Problems like we're having are so frustrating!!!!

aquaholic

saw, i did the grounds last weekend. all were clean and dry but i did them anyway. i'm hoping to have the switch back in tomorrow. i'll let you know how it turns out. what i would like to know though is this. what side of the rubber door accordian do you pop out to check that wiring bundle? i popped out the door side but was unable to pop out the side that mates to the car.

Greg_E

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...896875&page=16

See posts 315 and 316 on page 16. There's a good picture of the accordion boot removed,

aquaholic

thanks greg. i guess i simply didnt pull on the boot hard enough.

aquaholic

well as an update, the bill curlee ignition fix was my problem. followed the threads and worked like a charm. thank you mr curlee.

saw22

Glad you got it fixed, man. I'm still fighting with mine!