Well here's the story. Last night I parked my car at a wal-mart and had my girl pick me up to go see movies at her friends house. Around 3 this afternoon, she took me back to my car because she had to work. All of a sudden, my car won't start. Now, sometimes my car is just temperamental, so I checked some basics and tried again. No go. The engine turns over, I can hear the fuel pump turning on, and I pulled off a fuel line to make sure it was getting where it needed to go. The battery is fine, all my accessories work, lights, etc. Even so, I tried jumping it when my dad came to help. Still no luck. When I hooked up my OBDII scanner to my diagnostic port, the scanner won't even turn on, which leads me to believe the problem lies in the PCM.
Recently, I've had problems with some of my electrical systems. My cruise control no longer works, the fuse is fine. My turn signal bulbs, both newly replaced, worked for a while, then decided to stop working. Even the indicators for them in my cluster don't come on with them. My hazards still work in the rear, and the indicators on the cluster appear for those. In addition to this, sometimes when i use my turn signal (out of habit since they don't work) and the stalk returns to the normal position, my headlights (HIDs) flicker off then back on.
Over this winter break, I plan to basically strip the car and re-do all of the wiring I've added, but it seems as though there's something very wrong here. Any input? Thanks,
-J
Did you have this problem when you bought the car? Any electrical work done to it lately?
Nope that's what puzzles me so much. It's never done anything like this, when it previously wouldn't start, the problems would always be something simple like bad alternator, dead battery, etc. I haven't done any electrical work on the car since summer.
did you turned the ignition ON after connecting the scanner to the car?
I know is a stupid question but just to make sure
you also have installed aftermarket HID headlights. that could be part of the problem with the lights, but I'm not 100% sure.
check the headlight plugs and turn signal plugs and tail light plugs and make sure they are working normal.
you also have a 200 Amp HO Alternator. would that be too big for the electrical system?
I thought it was 105 amp
who did all the radio work?
Yeah I made sure the ignition was on when I had the scanner hooked up.
I think that part of the problem with the lights might be that I didn't do a DRL disable, which is recommended, but I usually drive with my ebrake up one click so DRL voltage doesn't try to get to my HIDs. When I pulled my bumper off to tow my car home, I noticed one of my bulbs was shattered, so I'll get new ones and see what that does for me. The tails are working normally as far as the bulbs and everything goes, it's just with the front (cluster/front signals) that there's a problem.
About the alternator... I actually think it's closer to 105 amp or even less, because I saw absolutely no change in voltage drops after I installed it. Even with my Red top, Big 3, and that alternator, I still see voltage drop, even when my radio is barely halfway up. All the wiring was done by me, which is why I plan on ripping it all out and doing it better.
Anyone else have any ideas? It's kind of an inconvenience, so anything helps!
Check cig-lighter fuse, that supplies power to the OBDII testport.
As far as the scanner not turning on ^ thats probably why, blown cig fuse. The PCM doesn't supply the power to that port...
Quote:
Recently, I've had problems with some of my electrical systems. My cruise control no longer works, the fuse is fine. My turn signal bulbs, both newly replaced, worked for a while, then decided to stop working. Even the indicators for them in my cluster don't come on with them. My hazards still work in the rear, and the indicators on the cluster appear for those. In addition to this, sometimes when i use my turn signal (out of habit since they don't work) and the stalk returns to the normal position, my headlights (HIDs) flicker off then back on.
Pretty much all those problems, and your starting problem, point to a problem inside your steering column. It would seem that you have some shorts in your column harness. Its probably causing your cig lighter fuse to blow and is draining the battery (your starting problems).
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