Hey guys, on my way to the Turtle Jack’s meet my car spazed out.
I was just crusing my 240 after warming her up properly when my deck cut out. Then it came back on, and so on. I figure ok the deck’s got a bad ground.
Then my entire dash began to flicker, the thing that really scared me was the my temp gauge (in my cluster not aftermarket) buried itself fully. I shut the car off immediatly.
My oil is good, coolent is good, so I’m thinking its just a electrical issue, but on the other hand mabe my temp gauge is right and im frying my motor. Fuel pump??
If it was getting like that as you let off the accellerator, I’d say your battery or your alt belt, if it was just doing that normally, I’d say belt or alt. If your belt is tight and in good shape, that definately cancels that out.
…I had my battery box kinda go flying across my trunk while out drifting one night (wasn’t attached as firmly as I thought… fixed that though) and couldn’t figure out why my stereo cut when I hit the brakes… Then I stopped and found out, as I noticed my battery not where it should have been…
the idea to his question was for him to find out what it could be, not what it could in no way shape or form be.
it’s a ground, probably in the engine compartment, corroded or loose. recently doing a swap from sohc to dohc I know of a few of them, theres one right on the firewall on the exhaust manifold side of the motor right behind the head. check that one, then look around for more wires attached to the body, retighten them all, every ground you can find.
My mx6 had a similar problem, I swapped the tranny with simplemind7 and when I left the cruise wouldnt work if the headlights were on and the signals made the headlights shut off, so i reattached a ground solved that, then later when I got back to london the temp/fuel gauge went all the way up and my car wouldnt even charge properly, moved a ground from the head onto the firewall and problem was solved.
Hey guys Im freaking out. I have more info now and hopefully someone can help me out (If you already think you posted the right reason why my car’s messed plz just post a ^^^^ or somthing).
Since my last post I drove my car to Oakville to my buddy’s shop to get it checked out. On my way my car did it again, the temp gauge buried itself and so on. I didn’t think there was anyway possible that my car could rise temp that quickly so I gave it WOT for a split second and heard a bunch of pop’s. Exactially like snowboard_240sx said. Also, I took all the load off my car such as fan, lights, everything and my car ran fine.
If it is my alternator can I just get a new battery for the time being? Cause I have a 2 year warrenty on mine. I’m just tight for cash right now.
Sorry for posting the same post twice it’s just some of you said alot of different anwsers and I figure with more info it would narrow them down. Also I’ve been hearing about alot of Sr’s going to sh1t lately and well… we all know how costly the swap is.
no if your alternator is done your car wont run off just the Battery and it sounds like the alternator is done if its running shitty when you have lights and deck on and turn them off and it runs (fine or better) happend to my old coupe i would replace the alternator sooner then later i almost didnt make it home because of mine and if you do it your self if you have the tools its only a 30-45 min job and as for cost you could find a used one for the time being
please check the grounds, the rest of these suggestions sound so far off. you said you are tight on cash, well it doesn’t cost anything other than a few minutes to check them. the main ground (which would make the same symptoms as you’re describing) goes from the battery negative terminal, to a bolt near the bottom of the battery, then to the intake manifold.
take it off at all 3 places, either sand it down with some sand paper or scrape it with a flat head screwdriver/chisel to clean it up on both the wire and where it attaches, then put it back on nice and tight.
do this with the small one that goes from the back drivers side of the valve cover to the firewall too.
just a few daysa go this also happened to my friends car (a 190e MB totally differnet car)
but BOTH aftermarket decks.
now this is what i think happens. when battery voltage drops below say 9v decks shut off on their own before the rest of the vehicle shuts off. i think this is a very good indicator of a dying battery as a result of an alternator that is not charging
this is what i think happened. very very interesting that your deck turned out before anything else your story was just like my friends
my honda did that when i had it… well not the dash but the deck. and 5 mins later the car died. My alternator connection disconnected a little but looked good. after troubleshooting i noticed it was just unplugged. i left the car for a bit after it died and the battery re-charged itself somehow and it was good enough to start the car i made it 2 minutes before it died again. dont worry check the alt.
Hey guys ty for all the help. So I got a soild chassis ground now and my car seems fine. Thing is, my negative terminal was always hooked up to the intake mani… no chassis ground at all. But now that theres one there it runs perfect? When it hasnt has one in the 7 months I have driven it?
My theory is that the ground from behind (closest to the firewall) the motor to the chassis crapped out, thus making my car spaz out.
On a side note, my low battery indicator light has always been on since I bought my car. Sometimes more faint sometimes more bright, even after putting in my brand new battery. My car runs mint now that I grounded it better but would you think this is a sign of my alternator starting to go on me?