Hi guys. All of a sudden, I have no power. I was working on the car and when I put the ground back on, I have nothing. No dome lights, no chimes, no dash lights, nothing happens when I turn the ignition.

The battery is good and was on a float charger. When I connect the negative terminal, it sparks. My Dakota digital box, which uses it's own ground, is on which tells me there is at least a little juice in the battery.

This started a few weeks ago. I ran the car and then all of a sudden there was no power. I took off the ground and moved it around a bit on the battery terminal and then it ran.

It happened about 2-3 more times and then I added the racetronix ground upgrade. I thought that fixed it but apparently not. Last night the car wouldn't start again and had the same symptoms.

I got under the car today and the ground strap to the block seems tight; the nut is tight. I have the original ground to the chassis still attached and that is supplemented by the racetronix ground strap.

Anyone ever have this happen? Any suggestions on stuff to check?

 

get under the car make sure that you have good connections down by your starter and that the smaller wires attached to it are not thinned and broken, also check the fusible links. but mostly be sure that the battery is good, no crud under the posts try to jump start from another car.

one more thing I was fairly general on things what year is the car?

 

..... Find the end of the battery ground cable that attaches to the engine block ... on early C4's that's on the drivers side above the oil filter ... later cars attached to a bellhousing to block capscrew ... clean that connection and report back ..........

 

thanks for the input. That bolt is a bear to get to. I'm guessing I'll get to it from below but I'll have to be a contortionist to undo it.

What do you recommend cleaning it with? Or, should I just flat out replace it? I'm familiar with the two grounding spots. This one appears to be to the block. I have several of the other smaller grounds to the bellhousing.

 

..... If its the bolt above the oil filter you need a 3/4" wrench ... use a gasket scraper and/or sandpaper to clean all paint , rust , or corrosion off all the connectors and the block and replace the bolt with new ..........

 

being that the car is about 22 years old, would I be better off to just replace the ground wire entirely? I couldn't get the nut off earlier. I had to go to home depot to pick up a shorty wrench. Hopefully I can get it off tomorrow.

 

I had similar symptoms and it turned out that the battery was leaking acid at the side terminals and the acid ate up the copper wire inside the battery cable. Try wiggling the battery cables where they attach to the battery. If one is floppy then you've found the problem.

It's possible that the connection is corroded. You'll have to remove the battery cables from the battery and check for that.

 

well, I just replaced the ground which was a pain, but I still have nothing (battery to bolt above the oil filter).

The battery is sparking when I connect the ground, but could it be that the battery is shot? If not, I'm not sure where to go from here. Should I run my multimeter across the terminals of the battery or how should I do that?

The thing that worries me is that with the battery attached, I'm not getting the door chimes or dome lights when I open the car. It seems like everything is off.

help!

 

Sounds like your battery is dead. Do you have a way to charge it?

It's possible that your alternator died and wasn't charging the battery...

 

Have you fixed the charging post on your alternator yet? Did it ever charge after the repair?

 

Side posts are also notorious for corrosion build up on the terminal bolt. See if you can screw trhe bolt out of the terminal and check for corrosion. If you find some, a wire brush and some bahing soda and water mix with a tooth brusg will clean it up.

I am with Cliff here, I think your problem is in the power leads.

 

Get some new terminals(posts) and see what happens. Those things get cross threaded very easily and cause an intermittant loss of connection. It may be the best $6 you ever spent.

 

Hi guys. So I slept on it and here are some more thoughts and info.

The ground wire is new and is grounded to the block above the oil filter. I used some paper towel and then sandpaper on the block to try to clean it up. The bolt however was a little dirty. I tried to clean up the threads the best I could (I used penetrant to loosen it when removing). It was a pain to get it back in. There were also 3 other items grounded there.

I am using a brand new battery lug that I got from racetronix.

The battery tested fine at 12.5 volts. Like I said previously, it's all or nothing. The car starts and cranks 100% fine when it's working but absolutely nothing happens when it is not.

I also replaced the smaller ground with the racetronix chassis ground as well. This was done a few weeks ago but didn't change the "no juice incidents' from happening.

The car hasn't run since I screwed up the alternator lug. I tried starting it prior to the alternator lug getting messed up and it didn't start then either. I will be replacing the alternator at some point...

One thing that I am noticing is that the battery ground is getting stripped from all of the on, off and tightening of the battery ground. I overtightened it (probably) and caused this however this is more recent, quite a while after the problem started.

Hmmm.... what to try next?

 

Well that connection at your negative terminal looks too heavy, it is clearly sagging, which means the connection in the battery terminal can't be solid.

If I'm reading this quote from your initial post correctly, the car had no juice, you moved the wires, and it had juice. My guess is still that you had a stripped terminal in the first place. This is common when disconnecting the neg terminal often to work on the car, I've replaced a few of them for this reason. The cable posts are very soft, allowing for a better connection and to protect the battery threads from getting stripped. I could be wrong in your case, but in my case, this was always the cause.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm really scratching my head and wondering if it could be anything with the battery internally. I'll try taking it over to the auto zone and see what they say. I have swapped the ground lug during the process of trying to fix this. Previously even when the ground lug was tight however, the connection was not being made and the car has no power. The first few times I could wiggle it and get a connection and then magically, with no changes made other than a drive, next time there would be zero power.

So if they (autozone) ran the battery test and it was a bad post internally, it should show up in their test, right? I've never heard of this problem but at this point I'll try about anything.

Edit, so here's another thought. Usually when I reconnect the battery, it sparks and then you hear the headlights motors go on. I'm not hearing any of that. Also, when I jiggle the negative post once it's making contact, there really isn't any additional sparking or on/off type sounds of the headlight motors. Not sure if this info helps but I thought I'd mention that.

 

so I took the battery in, and they said it tested fine. The ground terminal was a little temperamental; the first time, they tried to use their portable test unit that screwed into the side post and they couldn't get ground.

They did it on their full size machine and it tested okay. Part of me still wants to try another battery, but I'll hold off pending a few other issues.

So if the battery has 12 volts, are there any fusible links near the battery that would cause everything to go dark? My Haynes manual mentions them but didn't say the location (in chapter 12) of them. Or are there any large fuses that might cause loss of everything?

Hopefully I'll make some progress tomorrow on this.

 

Almost all the fusible links in the car go to the terminal block behind the battery. The exceptions are the fusible link for the HVAC blower motor, which is attached to the starter solenoid and there is a fusible link between the positive battery terminal and the ECM power connector. I think there might be one more but I don't have my FSM with me so I can't look it up.

 

Hi Cliff,

So if a fusible link went out or was in the process of going bad, would I have an all or nothing, power or no power type situation or would I just be a few componets out? Should I test voltage at the terminal block or elsewhere?

I'm willing to try whatever you guys suggest; I'm not the best with electrical, so perhaps I'm totally missing something.

 

Hmmmm????

What I can't explain is how you can read 12.5 volts yet nothing works. Was the battery connected to the car when you took that reading?

 

I keep seeing a bit of a pattern here first off when the car acts up you give a tug or some thing by the battery and all is well for bit hence what ever connection you touched is a fairly good chance is the problem, also you are hung up with it has 12volts a crappy connection will allow 12volts and lights all those 10/15 amp things to work. but the minute you throw the request for some real power like 500 + amps that the starter needs you have failure, remember its amps that start a car, and that requires good connections from within the battery all the way thru to the starter and ground system.

so next time it happens pay attention to what you touch and tug on
and since you have changed some cables and you are sure they are connected good, I am starting to wonder if you might have a cracked post inside the battery, again when it acts up with out touching anything use a good set of jumper cables and remove battery from the equation by using a independent battery.