Electrical Issues: 87 3.2

[PDKLOL]

Hey guys,

Today marks two years with my beloved "Bonnie". I decided to take a run up to the store to gather some things ahead of the tropical system that's headed for Florida this weekend. I drove it there just fine. drove from the store to the gas station in the same lot, fueled up, and then put key in ignition and turned it over to start and there was zero voltage. The dash wouldn't light up or anything when I turned key to accessory either. I rolled it away from the pump and into a parking spot and proceeded to check battery connections and play with the key in the ignition to see if either of those might help. At one point the dash lit up briefly but then in the middle of the start up attempt it killed power again. A few min later It eventually gave power to the dash in accessory so I quickly turned the key to start. She cranked right up without hesitation. During this whole incident I was having no issues putting the key in or turning it to any of the positions. It just simply would not activate power.

A few weeks ago I was driving and at a constant cruising speed she actually tried to die on me 3 different times. Almost like someone cut the power to the whole car for a brief second. Not enough for the car to completely die but rather like a hiccup.
Moments before I started getting those symptoms the head unit shut off and came back on a few times (like it was losing power). This may or may not be related as I've been messing around with my settings on the Electric AC trying to get that right and on this drive I may have been trying to kill my battery with the amount of amperage I was drawing.

After doing some reading I'm thinking this is either ignition switch or DME relay. Thoughts?


PFA

[proporsche]

Hi,start with the basics..remove and check the battery connection ground and plus connectors..clean lube and reinstall.The you have several grounds -one of them common cause the ground strap between the transmission and the body.Check and report..we will guide you

Ivan

[PDKLOL]

Originally Posted by proporsche

Hi,start with the basics..remove and check the battery connection ground and plus connectors..clean lube and reinstall.The you have several grounds -one of them common cause the ground strat between the transmission and the body.Check and report..we will guide you

Ivan

I will definitely check them. I recall inspecting all of these points when installing the electric AC about a year ago (maybe 3k miles).

[Lyle O]

Originally Posted by proporsche

Hi,start with the basics..remove and check the battery connection ground and plus connectors..clean lube and reinstall.The you have several grounds -one of them common cause the ground strat between the transmission and the body.Check and report..we will guide you

Ivan

This is right on the money...check the other main grounds also (like in engine compartment on left side of intake manifold, etc.). Also, if you added electric AC (Johnny's system-Classic Retrofit?), be sure the connections you tapped for that are sound. Did your system include the larger alternator (it should have)? Those connections could be suspect also.

The ignition switch, if the other items check out, is a bit of a pain to replace, but doable.
But like Ivan said, try the easy stuff first...

[LJ851]

Not too many things will kill Everything electrically in the car.

Main battery connections, ignition switch/connections is where i would start.

The dash would still light up with a bad DME relay and most other failed components.

[GH85Carrera]

I have had several batteries just die. Fine one moment, and dead the next. So pull the battery, and have it load tested first. Then the obvious double check the battery cable connections, and all the grounds, even the transmission ground strap.

[tirwin]

Head unit shutting off also sounds like failed/failing voltage regulator. Many modern units have over-voltage protection circuits that shut off/reset devices. Over-voltage can damage the battery.

Do you have a voltmeter in the car? If not get one of those that plugs in the cig lighter so you can monitor it.