Gremlin

Well after having the car for 4 months, it finally gave me a breakdown yesterday.
Got out of work yesterday at 5pm. Walked to the car, placed the key in the ignition and turned and everything was silent. I took the key and and placed it back in the ignition, when I turned it to the on position the car beeps once. When I turn it completely it's dead silent, no noise from anything. The dome light comes on (very dim) when the door is open. If I turn the hazards on the dome light dims and brightens with the hazards. There is no activity from the gauges. I thought it was just that the battery was dead but that was proven false by trying to jumpstart it. The lights came on, dome light was bright, but was unable to roll up the windows or close the sunroof. Nor did the car start.
The only thing I noticed that had lead up to this was a few nights ago. Coming to a stop sign and hitting the breaks, the light from the gauges would dim down. I figured the alt. was on it's way out and had planned on replacing that soon.
So I had my car towed home and now it sits on the side of the road until I can have it pushed into the garage. Inclined driveways suck.
I guess the first thing I should check out would be fuses to see if one might have blown. From there should I have the starter looked at as well as the alt. and battery? Any suggestions guys would help. I'm really hoping it is something minor, but in a way I kinda hope for something major. A T2 swap would be nice to do if it came down to that.

Thanks guys.

Molotovman

iTrader: (49)

Your battery is just really dead. I know someone who had a similar problem. Check how old your battery is, and if it is past it's warranteed life, Replace it, or take it to a shop to get a charge.

Russ

its one of three things

alternator
battery
or crappy battery connections (terminals and wires) mine did the same thing. id have to jiggle the battery cables for it to start. i replaced the battery terminals and now it seems to work fine.

Syonyk

Battery, most likely. Mine did the same thing - the battery had up & died on me while I was at work. Ran fine going to work, wouldn't start after work. I got a jump & kept it over 2000 RPM all the way to the parts store & replaced the battery there. If the battery is REALLY dead, it's going to be a big load on the system when you try & jump it.

Also, clean or replace the battery terminals.

-=Russ=-

Gremlin

Russ...more pics of the girl in your avatar.

I'm going to replace the battery regardless with an Optima. Probably replace the battery connections and see what happens. Thanks for the comments.

riptyde

iTrader: (5)

I had the same problem, I replaced the battery with a Optima yellow top. Still did the same thing, so I upgraded to a third gen alternator. My lights still dim when braking and my cd player will turn off when I have my headlights on and I hit the brake lights. I have not found the problem yet.

Bryan

87RX7TII

"I had the same problem, I replaced the battery with a Optima yellow top. Still did the same thing, so I upgraded to a third gen alternator. My lights still dim when braking and my cd player will turn off when I have my headlights on and I hit the brake lights. I have not found the problem yet."

Have you replaced all of your engine grounds?
Thats the same thing that happened to me until I remade all of my grounds.
AND make sure your stereo ground finds its way to the chassis. I had mine grounded to a nut under the dash and it cut out like you said.

Froggmann

I say take a look at your cables and ground points, also have the battery load tested. It's possible you may have a broken plate in the battey (which would cause it to suddenly go kaput) or other condtion like low electrolytes. As for the wiring I would take a close look at that check the cables from the connectors to their end points. also clean off any groundpoints between the body and the engine. A brass brush works pretty good at doing this.

Gremlin

Ok...well I got an opportunity this weekend to look over the car. What I found was the the Main fuse in the engine bay had blown. How? I have no clue. It allowed certain things to work but did not allow the car to turn over. So after spending $3 on a 80a fuse the car started with a battery borrowed from my brother. (Current battery had gone to **** anyways) Drove to Walmart bought myself a battery. Went over to my brothers house and the next day took his battery out and replaced with the one I bought. Went to turn the car on...same thing....car did not want to start. Checked the fuse agai...sure enough it was blown as well. Head over to the autoparts store. Bought 3 fuses this time. Replaced it and haven't had any problems as of yet. Now I need to figure out what caused the fuse to blow in the first place.

And I do need to replace the batter connections....so bad they almost seem like puddy.

inflatablepets

Hmm large electrical short? How about alternator/ starter?