So today I goto start my car this morning (89 240sx) and it starts no problem…but i noticed once its started it idles around 500 and bounces real bad…and running super rich (black smoke and carbon deposit in it), also the battery light was flickering. So i say screw it and drive my dads truck to work, i get home around 5 and goto start it and track down the problem…it doesn’t start, i just hear a clicking sound, then nothing. The battery won’t hold a charge im guessing because theres something draining it…i have it wired for a stereo but no amp is hooked up and its been fine like that for months.
The day prior it ran pretty good, felt a little sluggish but thats normal with the A/C on. I parked it over night in my driveway. Something happend over night…we had rain, but i don’t see why that would make a difference. I checked all the fuses under the dash inside. I checked fuses under the hood and they were all ok. Any ideas?
Recently i have done the spark plugs, o2 sensor and an oil change, air filter is dirty tho
We tried tapping the starter while cranking and boosting it, didn’t work, the power goes out everywhere on the car when i turn it over, after i turn the key back and wait about 3 min roughly, the power comes back. Also the alarm is really quiet (from the battery being nearly dead)
Any input/help will be great. thanks
well, charge it up first off. if it doesn’t hold the charge then it’s either the battery is bad, or there is a electrical drain somewhere. find that out ASAP.
as far as running rich, check your MAF, check for leaks on your intake, is this turbo? check intercooler piping and BOV is re-circulated.
hope some of that helps!
thank you!
im gonna try charging it tonight, it was just wierd how it drained dead while i was at work. Um…not a turbo car (I WISH!!) MAF i’ll check and clean tommorow when my cold air intake arrives. thanks for the help
Take a multimeter and check your ignition off draw, If you have any more than a couple milli-amps then your in trouble.
whats a multimeter? and if i do…whats the problem then?
you would disconect a battery terminal when the car is off, hook up an amp meter or multimeter and see if there is a draw. basically your looking to see if something is sucking up power when the car is off. try this with the key off, and if there is a draw then check for obvious things like lights inside car or trunk, stereo amps, ect… if you can’t find it and this isn’t your kind of expertice, get prefessional help. you don’t want to screw this up!!
im thinking i might have forgoten my lights on this morning (i hope), i was 45 min. late for work because of a power outage and i was half asleep when this happend…thanks for your input, i’ve got the battery on a charger right now to see if will hold a charge, I’m hoping i left my lights on…can anyone explain the clicking i hear when i try and crank it over?
that;s your solenoid on your starter trying to make a connection to turn the starter over, but if there is not enough voltage then it clicks, but that’s all. similiar to when the solenoid fails and you tap on it to loosen it up, and if you keep trying to start it when it does this you can accually cause to get stuck.
thanks for the warning 
i’ll try it tommorow and see how it goes
ok, i took the battery out last night…charged it over night and took it to a shop, they tested it and it was fine…now what could e the problem? they said possibly the starter…any ideas??? i tryed tapping it but no luck…
so you charged the battery up but now when you turn the key it dose nothing or it clicks?
if it clicks, then it’s the solonoid of the starter. you could probably get away with just replacing or rebuilding that, not the whole starter. if it does nothing then you might be in more trouble than just that. if you only need a solonoid, I’d help you out, but i’m along way away from you, so find someone that knows what they are doing or go to a starter repair shop.right before you do that, just make sure you have power at the starter and your grounds are good. could save you some time and money just to make sure of that first!
i work at a shop so i could bring it in…pain in the ass tho i wish i ran just good enough to drive there (it’s like 3 km’s)
sigh i guess i gotta bring it in… 
and when i turn the key nothing happends anymore…
if nothing happens, then make sure there is even power to the starter and your grounds are good.
I have seen many cars that won’t start, or run like crap just because of a bad ground, my own included.
that makes sence because it ran like crap just before this happend ( half of the previous day)
ok, last night i pulled the starter, brough it into the shop today and they did a no load test, it worked fine. They also told me it was a bad ground…any ideas on where to look for the grounding wires??? any help would be AWESOME! thanks alot for the help given :E
well, look at the negative post of your battery, and follow that cable to wherever it goes, then make sure it’s secured tightly with NO corosion. if it’s corroded, then remove it, and scrape the connection clean with a blade or something like that then re-attach securely.
should be a ground connected from the negative post to the body and to a point near the starter AT LEAST! then you could add more if you want, but you have to be carefull where you put them, you don’t want them TOO close to other electrical devices.
i did that, and i got it to turn over…thing is, i gotta move the key from the on position to then turn it over, and move it forwards and back for it to turn over now…now im confused…
oh yea i took both negative coenctions and sanded them shiny and rough, shoud be no problems there for any connection yet it acts the same untill i do the thing with the key. and once i turned it over it was running REALLLY rich…black smoke and all…
i did that, and i got it to turn over…thing is, i gotta move the key from the on position to then turn it over, and move it forwards and back for it to turn over now…now im confused…
oh yea i took both negative coenctions and sanded them shiny and rough, shoud be no problems there for any connection yet it acts the same untill i do the thing with the key. and once i turned it over it was running REALLLY rich…black smoke and all…
well with a couple of days of trying to start it, the cylinders could be half full of fuel!! so after you get it running, give it a minute or two before you get worried about it!
and it’s still kind of sounding like a starter solenoid. which they would not check with a basic load test on your starter.
but try to describe what it is doing a little better, makes it easyer to give advice.
would a video help?? i’ll get one tommorow for ya, hopefully get to the bottme of this…as im trying to sell it :? and i don’t want to sell car that doesn’t run %100 the way it should and was before this started…
i’ll try and explain…i gotta crank it like 2 or 3 times quick, burping it, then hold the key and it starts, hesitant, but starts, then black smoke and i shut it off really fast because theres no air filter on it right now (waiting to find a MAF adapter) any help on finding an MAF adapter would be great, i got an AEM short ram if that makes any difference, and the KA24E