I drove my '03 coupe to work today for the 1st time in quite a while. No longer my daily driver, I don't get it out as much as I used to or like to anymore, but today my other car was getting serviced.

The drive to work was completely fine.

The drive home, however, was a different story. Everything started out fine. I put the windows down, then about 10 minutes in I tried to put them up to find that the passenger side window wouldn't raise. I was annoyed, but that was just the beginning. A few minutes later, I think I felt a tiny bit like the crew of Apollo 13 when all hell broke loose.

The following all happened simultaneously:
- The oil and gas gauges fell to zero, while the temp gauge went to maximum.
- The radio and clock went off.
- Both windows ceased to function.
- An 8 bell alarm started going off.
- The CHECK GAUGES light, as well as what looked like every other light in the gauge cluster went on.
- The following 5 messages started repeating on the DIC:
REDUCED ENGINE POWER
SHOCKS UNRESPONSIVE (or something like that)
SERVICE ENGINE SOON
LOW FUEL
CHECK TIRE PRESSURE
- Who knows what else was going on.

I noticed after a few seconds that the car was still running, and I knew I had enough gas and that the tires were fine, so I kept going despite the alarms. I also noticed that I still had lights & blinkers. It was about a 40 minute ride home with the bells and everything else. When I finally got home I turned the ignition off, then to see what would happen I started it up again. Everything went back to normal, except the passenger side window still wouldn't go up.

SO, I can't drive the car until I know what that was all about. If anyone can shed some light, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Ck your battery cables and ck for battery leakage.

 

probally low battery from sitting.
.

 

Yeah those all sound like low voltage or bad ground issues, and maybe the passenger window regulator to boot. Do the other electrics on that side work (door lock, mirror)?

 

Roger, Apollo 13. Restart and reset.

Did you hear a loud bang with the caution and warning indicator, over?

 

No, Houston, but my master alarm keeps flashing madly and the buzzer is about to destroy my eardrums. Either we hit a meteor or my battery ground cable is loose, over.

 

Roger, Apollo 13.

Fred, go ahead and button up the tunnel again. Over.

 

Do you see anything "venting" out of the aft hatch window???

I'm going with a battery, for your safe return to tera firma...

Had something very similar happen to me, and it turned out to be the battery. Hope that's all it is for you.

 

Interesting. I keep a CTEK Multi US 7002 connected to the car when I'm not using it to prevent this from happening.

Oh well. Currently in recharge mode.

Lothar34: None of the electronics on the passenger side are currently working.

Thanks for the responses!

 

I have heard it a lot on here, so I think it is worth mentioning:

How about the infamous accordion coupler issue in the passenger door?? Would make sense if you suddenly lost everything in the door...

Just my $.02 from Houston...


-Ed

 

Once again, good solid info from 8VETTE7

 

Mine went nuts when the battery died. It was fine going to work but wouldn't start when leaving. I jumped it and it started but it was not happy on the way home! Bells, whistles, it was not pretty. It wouldn't take a charge so I replaced the battery and all was well. I hope it's that simple for you.

 

I am hearing a lot of cases of electrical malfunctioning when the battery dies. Does the electrical go crazy also if you are just working around the car and disconnect the battery?

 

No, the problems are caused by low voltage, not by an actual disconnect. Disconnecting the battery will kill ALL the electronics, and then reconnecting it will restart them. Poor connections or a failing battery will cause low voltage and make the electronics go haywire.

Trust me, I work in the low voltage automation world - get about 20% under what a piece of electronics is expecting for voltage, and things just get damned screwy...

 

Oh okay. That's good to know. Yeah things act funny and do strange things when they don't get the power they need, huh?

By the way, speaking of proper voltage, is there info somewhere about what the temp guage, oil pressure gauage, etc are supposed to normally read under normal conditions?

 

I believe that info can be found in the owners manual.

 

 

I've also had low voltage warnings just from the car sitting for 2 weeks

 

With the symptoms you have, I would bet that there is a damaged wire in the accordion tube between the door and door jamb. The wire for th "class2 data bus" may be being shorted to ground.

Gary

 

I agree with checking the battery. A load test is the BEST test.

Oh, and when you buy a battery, make sure it has 120 reserve minutes. And for your next question:

Reserve capacity is the number of minutes a battery can maintain a useful voltage (10.5 volts) under a 25 ampere discharge. The higher the minute rating, the greater the battery's ability to run lights, pumps, inverters, and electronics for a longer period before recharging is necessary.