Figured I’d write this up even though I fixed the problem because it stumped the dealer and myself for a while.
Occasionally on my GTO I’ll get a whine through the stereo like a bad ground. If I shut the car off and start it back up the problem goes away.
While it’s making the noise if I romp on the gas real hard, turn hard, or brake hard sometimes the radio with shut off completely like it lost power. A couple seconds later it powers back up.
Also, while it’s making this noise, if I brake hard enough for the ABS to come on the headlights will dim. The ABS does not cause this to happen if the whining noise isn’t happening.
It happens very rarely, maybe once every couple weeks, but more when it’s raining outside.
It went to the dealer a couple times for this and they couldn’t find anything. Probably because Culligan on Main is one of the worst service departments I’ve ever been to but that’s a different story. Do a search for posts by “JayS” with “Culligan” in the text if you’re interested.
So I start trying to troubleshoot this myself, figuring there has to be a short somewhere, and noticed some white powder under my battery. I take the battery out and it’s obvious it has had a tiny leak for some time since the entire battery tray was covered in white crap. After cleaning it up and repainting it I put in a new battery. This was months ago and I haven’t had a single electrical gremlin since.
So even if a battery has more than enough power to start the car it can still be the cause of all sorts of electrical issues.