Well, Murphy's Law Pwnz me. The Roush is in the shop, and the Cavalier, my only remaining means of transportation, decides to take a dump on me. Story is as follows:

The car has been running fine for the most part, with an occasional rough start every now and then. I pull into a parking lot last night, shut it off, go back to start it about five minutes later and...nothing. The car seems to exhibit many of the characteristics of a dead battery, but I'm still reading a steady 12.5V from it. Basically, when I open the door, the door chimes work properly. I put the key in the ignition, turn it forward to the first position, everything still working as it should be electrically. I turn it to the second position, the one used for actually starting the car and the postion the key is in when the car is running, and EVERYTHING goes dead...no chimes, no lights, nothing. If I actually try to start the car, the ignition doesn't even click, much less try to turn over...The car is equipped with an alarm with an ignition cut off, but I don't think this is causing anything. The battery is an Optima Red Top that is about four years old, could it just be past it's usable life?.

Well if you know that you have 12.5V at the battery, I'm assuming that you have a multimeter? If so then check to see if you have power and ground at the starter.

Well, actually, I was just using my radar detector to read voltage. I don't have any tools with me since the car decided to crap out in a parking lot. Is there the possibilty that the amperage in the battery has deteriorated even though the voltage still reads good? What else should I be on the look out for?

Yes that can be highly possible but you're probably SOL with out any tools. You could look for any signs of corrosion on the starter solenoid. The problem you're describing sounds like its the starter itself, but you need a multimeter to be able to check

Check your leads to the battery for corrosion.
Happened to my car and the negative was corroded like no other.
Took a wire brush to it, hooked it back up, started fine.

-Seth

The Same thing happened to me tonight!!!

I got in my 96 Z24, and dome light came on, door chime as per usual. Turned the key to 'on' dash light up and chime as per normal... turned key to 'start' and everything went dead. Now I got nothing, no light, no cheery chime to keep me company no power at all.

I'm half tempted to think that maybe my starter circuit shorted out and blew a fuse, or burned out my relay.

Anyone have any Ideas?????

wizkiddrummer wrote:Check your leads to the battery for corrosion.
Happened to my car and the negative was corroded like no other.
Took a wire brush to it, hooked it back up, started fine.

-Seth

What this smart kid said.

-Seth

I was under he hood the day before, and I had my battery disconnected.... I was changing my alternator. And my battery leads were not really that bad... I can't immagine that it would be to a point where I get no power at all from the battery all of a sudden...

this may be a shot in the dark but last week my car wouldnt start.. i turned it of went to turn it back on 5min later it owuldnt start i messed with it for 3 days found out the ignition cylinder wannt going far enough foward to crank it. It would go all the way to turn the radio off but i guess it was a hair away from cranking it i took it out took it to a lock smith he popped it apart and fixed it in like 2minutes for 10.00 its probably pretty rare but just a shot.

Luc Mallet wrote:I was under he hood the day before, and I had my battery disconnected.... I was changing my alternator. And my battery leads were not really that bad... I can't immagine that it would be to a point where I get no power at all from the battery all of a sudden...

I was sorta doin the same thing but then after i put my negative back on, that was the problem. I could use the radio and everything, just couldn't start it.

-Seth

Good news. I disconnected my battery this morning, and cleaned both leads (there was no corrosion whatsoever, but I did it just cause i had my wire brush in my back pocket and I felt like using it!) then I pulled every fuse pertaining to my battery and Ignition system, checked my relays and everything was fine. I reconnected my battery with my amp power line, and my hyper ground wires. got in the car, turned the key and voila, she's alive!!!

I have no idea what did it, cause before I did everything I stated above, I checked to see wether I had power and I didn't - no chime, no dome light... nuthin. But after I did all that she started like a charm, maybe I just had to remove the power source for the fault to reset.

Who knows, hopefully it won't happen again, cause it usually isn't a quick fix two times in a row when it comes to electronics!

thanks for your input guys!
cheers!