Ok well this past saturday was super nice so I took my car out for a drive. I was drivin down a long staight back road when two random dogs ran out in front of me, and a combination of braking, locking up and swerving (which was a mistake) sent me into one of the dogs(which I feel sooo bad about) and a guard rail. I screwed up my bumper cover on my s5 n/a and the passenger fender. Anyways, so now I have to park my car and wait till I can order the parts and get it fixed. It drove fine on the way home after the accident and still felt good so from what I can tell it is only cosmetic. I got it home and checked things out and have it under a cover for the time being. Anyways today I wanted to check it out and I found that the lights dont come on and when i turn the key nothing comes on and the car wont start of course either. Does anyone have any idea what is going on with the car. I dont see how the accident could have hurt the electrical system. I was testing things out when i got it home and only one of the lights came up and so i left it in the up position. But i dont see how that would effect it. So please if anyone has any suggestions please respond.


Also I plan on buying new parts myself and getting a local body shop to put it together and repaint it and I would love any suggestions to good sites and places to get new parts for the car. Ive checked out a few but I wanted some more input. All input would be great. Im so heartbroken over this right now, and I need some help figuring out what to do. Thanks guys

 

Unplug the connections going to the lights and most importantly the headlights.

The headlight motor, if the headlight won't go down all the way, will try... and try... and... kill your battery. ;P

--Gary

 

Thanks a lot man. Ill do that and then I guess jump it and or get a new battery.

 

would that mean that I probably burnt the motor for the headlight as well?

and which connections are these?, Im gonna check out the fsm now.

 

They're all right behind the headlights, you probably didn't burn the motor out... it tries for like 30 seconds, then stops, waits a long time then tries again.

--Gary

 

yeah I found em. Kinda white plastic connectors. I checked out the fsm i have and they looked just like that. thanks for the help

 

you shouldn't need a new battery, either

unless it was already old, then draining it took all life out

just have it sit on a charger for a while, should be good as new

sorry to hear about the accident, too-- that kind of **** sucks

 

Not exactly true. My car was in a front end accident before and the headlight motors were got jammed and burned themselves out. They ended up draining my optima red top which was relatively new.

 

well, ill get the battery out and charge it up and see. And then once i get the car fixed ill see if those motors need to be replaced. Are they expensive?

 

Check all your fuses while you are at it, something might have just come loose also or shorted out.

 

yeah i took a look at some of them and they looked good. Ill take a more extensive look this weekend