Strange Electrical Issue
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 605
Likes: 0
From: Alta Loma CA
Strange Electrical Issue
Thought I would share this with everyone. Went to take the car out for a cruise after it had been sitting for about a month. Just had not had time to even sit in it. Turned the key and nothing looked right. The electric tach needle actually went in a complete circle. Then when I tried to crank it everthing went dim.
Checked the battery, voltage read about 9. So put the charger on it after a few minutes it read fully charged. Next I checked the stater. Voltage there looked good. So I took the stater out. Worked fine on a bench test off another battery. Put that back in. Took the battery out. Now it shows full voltage. Put it back in. Same symptoms. Took the battery back out and tried a spare battery from another one of my toys. Car fired right up. Took the battery back as it was still under pro rated warranty. They put it on their machine. Battery came up immeadiately as no good. The battery had an internal short that was causing all the isssues.
Just luck I found the issue. I was thinking major short somewhere else. Hope this experience helps someone else solve a weird issue someday.
Checked the battery, voltage read about 9. So put the charger on it after a few minutes it read fully charged. Next I checked the stater. Voltage there looked good. So I took the stater out. Worked fine on a bench test off another battery. Put that back in. Took the battery out. Now it shows full voltage. Put it back in. Same symptoms. Took the battery back out and tried a spare battery from another one of my toys. Car fired right up. Took the battery back as it was still under pro rated warranty. They put it on their machine. Battery came up immeadiately as no good. The battery had an internal short that was causing all the isssues.
Just luck I found the issue. I was thinking major short somewhere else. Hope this experience helps someone else solve a weird issue someday.
Advanced
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 90
Likes: 2
From: Las Vegas Nevada
Good to hear man. I had a similar situation last week. Just bought the car, drove it around all day getting it smogged and licensed. Got it washed right before dark and drove it home with the lights on. I pulled into the garage and started fiddling with things turning the power on and off for maybe 3 minutes. Finally I go to back her out for some reason, and the tach did the same thing, went all the way around. I was freakin'! Thought the wiring harness was all messed up or something. I calmed down and thought what could cause this, and I decided to jump start the car to see if it was a battery issue or a wiring issue. It jumped like a champ and all went back to normal. Turned it off, unhooked the cables, turned it back on and the car freaked again. Swapped out the battery for a new one, and all has been well since. My 2 cents.
