OK, this is the scoop.

The first thing I obsrved not long ago was Low Voltage Messages coming up on my DIC when I started the car. i havent seen that in a while but I have observed that interior lighting (radio, boost controler, Instrumentation lighting) dims when I step on brakes or hit the turn signals.

2cnd, and I believe a related problem, is starting the car. Recently, I have tried to start the car and sometimes I woud hear 2 or 3 spark-plug like noises and then all lighting and power would go off. Then when I got out of the car the door lights came back on. I would then try again to start the car - same result. The noise when starting sounds like a short somewhere because it goes to start and suddenly everything cuts out.

Then I would go to the battery and move the positive terminal, jiggle it and eventually she would start with no problem. Last week the car failed to start at the gas station. A guy tried to give me a jump and that short-like noise happened again and all power went off even with his jump attempt. Eventially, I jiggled the wire and she started.

I dont believe this is the battery and I also cleaned the positive terminal. Its not the starter as there are I believe related symptoms present with the car in motion. But what the hell could this be?

I think the fact that stepping on the brakes or hitting a turn signal causing a dimming of interior lighting points to something

 

Check the tightness of the nut that secures the end of the 12V battery feed wire, at the starter. They are often loose. Careful you dont ground your wrench to the chassis while tieghtening!!!!

 

Thanks, I hope its that simple. Someone else told me it also could be a loose ground.

 

Had similar problem with my 98...wirers were loose at starter...took them off and wire brushed them good before I tighted them back on the starter...no problems since....remove your ground wire off your batt and then you dont have to worry about the wrench.

Hope this helps.
Jack

 

Havent gotten the chance to do this yet. But would this kind of loose connection at the starter be the cause of internal gage lights, radio lights, dome lights dimming/fluxuating when I adjust power seats or step on the brake? It seems that something that requires power (brake lights, power seats) causes somethig else that uses electrical power to dim. I though the alternator gives power to all car electrical components after she is started?

 

My guess is that it's an open circuit inside the battery at the positive terminal post.

 

Are you saying the culprit is inside the battery itself? Or the positive cable itself?

 

Inside the battery itself.

 

But how would that cause other lights to dim as I described? Isnt the alternator taking over at that point? I have an OPTIMA FWIW

 

Take the positive cable off and check for corrosion. It was the culprit the 1st time I had that problem, it was a bad battery the next two FWIW Optimas have been dieing with regularity. you should read the forum more often

 

No, its not corrosion because that was the first thing I thought and I cleaned the connectors. But I have read lots of Optima battery complaints lately. I just havent read about my specific problem so I am not able to definitely say its the battery especially cuz the dimming of lights occur (as I mention above) when the car is running. I will try to replace the battery this weekned and then get at the starter end if the battery replacement doesnt do the trick.

 

The battery cables can get corrosion inside the plastic cover and behind the bolt that secures the terminal to the battery terminal. It is difficult to explain and even more difficult to see.

Remove the terminals. Put a towel under them and blast them out with brake parts cleaner. Move the bolt in the center of the terminal around while your spraying out the terninals. when your done with the brake parts cleaner, spray them out with WD-40.

Reconnect them and torque the terminals to 11 FT /LBS.

If you have poorly connected battery terminals you will get voltage surges and you can damage the alternator and all of the cars microprocessors (PCM, BCM, TAC, RFA, DCM, SCM ect ect...)

The sound that you were hearing was probably the battery terminals arcing or one of the 50 or so relays in the electrical system going crazy do to low voltage.

Some minor voltage flucations are normal and can been seen when in the lighting even if everything is working normaly. The system is very sensitive and reacts to loads.

Fix the terminals and let us know how you make out.

Bill C

 

i would check the connection at the starter before i bought a new battery.

 

That is another place for poor electrical connections. The heat and vibrations make the connetions get loose and corrode.

BC

 

Yes my 98 did the same thing(dimming) when I steped on the brake etc....mine got so bad that I started getting charge system fault on the DIC...nothing worked until I did the cable at the starter....as I said in last post I have not had any problem since.

Good Luck,
Jack

 

I would even recommend taking the cable ends, especially the positive, and dunking them into a plastic bowl that's half full of a baking soda/water mix. Let them sit in the mix and look for the presence of any "fizzing" (small bubbles), which indicates the presence of corrosion and/or acid. If there is no "fizzing", put some clean fresh water in the bowl, swish the cable ends around in it to rinse, and follow Bills advice. If there is "fizzing", let the cable ends stay in the solution until any bubbles stop, then clean and re-install. HTH

 

There's was also a thread not too long ago about the main ground under the hood being a problem sometimes, with pictures on a suggested fix.

Sorry, but I didn't find it with the search feature.

 

There is not one MAIN ground. There are 13 on a 97-00 and a **** ton more on an 01-04. There are two types of grounds. An Eyelet type and a connector type.

Here are what they look like:


They all connect to studs which have a NASTY tendancy to break off if you dont wire brush the stud and soak it in penitrating oil. PB Blaster is one of the best.

Here is a rusty stud:



There are also Splice packs that can give you trouble. They look like this:




The main negative terminal for the battery goes over to the passengers side of the engine block. There is a smaller ground wire that splits off of the negative terminal that grounds the frame. If that one gets nasty, it can give you all sorts of issues.

Ther is what it looks like:



My 98 had some serious ground issues causing some very strange electrical problems that just about drove me crazy!

After cleaning all of the grounds, the car runs like NEW!

Bill Curlee

 

Thanks, Bill, for clarifying my misstatement.

Indeed, the ground in the last photo Bill provides is the one to which i was referring having seen in a recent thread.

 

That ground wire is is very small and I often wonder if replacing it with a larger diameter/gauge wire will make a difference??? I added a heavy duty ground wire from the alternator to G-101. The alternator is only grounded to the engine with a very small guage wire and a bolt. Now it has a solid ground!

Bill