rx7ryan

ok, i've been searching for days for the reason I lost all electrical power in my s5 t2. basically, i was testing spark by putting all plugs in wires facing my neg batt terminal and cranking the car to see what sparks. after the first quick crank, i saw a spark near the pos terminal and after that there was no power. The only reason that i've found that this could be is:
1. blown main fuse
2. fried ecu
3. blown fuse under dash

and none of that is the case. Please help me out here.

RotaryRepair

Does the car crank? click? spark/light on fire?

Rare, but not impossible, you may have melted a wire somewhere, or destroyed your battery.

FYI Next time just set the plugged in spark plugs on a grounded piece of metal, not your battery.

rx7ryan

the car doesn't do any of that. it's just totally dead. nothing happens. Maybe i did melt a wire somewhere, but the battery still gives me a decent reading of 12.07 with my multimeter and it looks perfectly fine. so where should i start looking for a melted wire?

ilike2eatricers

So have you actually checked your fuses yet????

rx7ryan

yes, all of them

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

are there any fusible links blown.(isn't there 3?)..I read it somewhere.. i would be searchin wiring for it..just a thought

rotary downshift

sounds like a compleatly shorted battery if u said the posative sparked that means there was an ark between negative and posative thus killing ur battery and draining it of all its power ... i learned that the hard way fiddling with electric rc cars ... same concept .. totaly different thing thoe ... either way ur looking at a rechargable battery .... once arked .. usless try boosting it

TurboIIGuy

Well creating an arc on your battery for all but a second or two does not usually do so much damage as completely "shotring it" or "destroying it" from my experience over the years installing stereo systems.
I have on more than a few occasions watched as newbie installers forgot to secure a line and had the positive of a batery ground out through a wire and completely melt the wire and in most instances caused an actuall fire. The batteries have still been fine after a few seconds of this. At worst a battery has needed a recharge.

My recommendation to you is start with the easiest and cheapest.
Remove the battery and take it to an auto parts store to be tested under load. Even though a battery ready at 12 volts doesn't mean it will read that under load. It may be dropping to below 5 volts while trying to crank if there are no amps stored.
Start there.
Also, have you tried simply disconnecting the battery, turning the ignition forward to the on position, then letting it sit there for 5 minutes to discharge and reset the ecu??

rx7ryan

ok, i just went out there and tried to crank it and there was a click then nothing. then i removed the neg terminal, put it back on and tried to turn on the headlights. they went up with the light on but then the light turned off and the headlight was up. i removed the neg again and put it back then closed the headlight and nothing had power right after again. so i'm going to say that i believe it's some type of circuit breaker tripping and it's because there's a short. another thing is when i put the boost cables from another car's battery to the pos terminal, it really sparks good. i put it on the little nut that holds one side of the metal clasp to the rest of the terminal clamping down the pos cable and it left a small black mark. i don't know what that would indicate, but i guess what i'm asking is where should i look for the short and what circuit breaker would be doing this?

driftfc87

iTrader: (6)

you should try taking the battery out and hook jumper cables up to the pos and neg and see if it will run off the alternator i would guess if it doesnt do that then you probly have a short

rx7ryan

I did take off the terminals to my battery. i hooked up cables from a running car's battery to the terminal hookups and what i described above happens. it's not the battery. i've confirmed that. i just need to know what circuit breaker is tripping and where the associated short would be.

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

sounds like high resistance in one of the cables, my guess is and i have seen it before, the negative battery cable has gotten so hot it melted the insulator right off and fused many of the wires in the harness together causing intermittent working and then non working components. inspect both positive and negative cables to be sure they are still in good condition to the engine block and starter/fuse box.

rx7ryan

well, i didn't see any burnt or melted wiring between the battery and as far as i could see. i also didn't see anything unusual like that around the fuse box in the car.

rx7ryan

is it possible that it's a circuit breaker tripping?

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

i doubt it, circuit breakers are usually only used for high load circuits like power windows only, not even sure our cars even use any circuit breakers due to the fact we have so many window switch issues. it would be either a hairline fractured main fuse, faulty ignition switch or a intermittent wiring issue like i posted above. the ground wire i found burnt was not easily visible, i saw part of the convolute tubing deformed under where the strut tower was and when i dissected the loom i found a big ball-o-mess.

if there is any circuit breakers, if i remember seeing any they would be at the top of the driver's kick panel fuse box. the red button sticking out means the breaker is tripped and they need to be manually reset. in 15 years i have yet to see an automotive circuit breaker fail and in this case it sounds as though it would be working anyways as a circuit breakers job is to open the circuit in the instance of an overload indicating a problem within that circuit.

rx7ryan

are you absolutely positive that i could narrow it down to:

1. hairline fractured main fuse
2. faulty ignition switch
3. intermittent wiring issue

if so, could i further narrow it by saying that it's not the ignition switch because i turned on the headlights and it did the same thing? and also say that i just replaced the main fuse so maybe it's not that either. whatcha think?

rx7ryan

?

Chuck

iTrader: (2)

I'm surprised no one has recommended you check your main grounds. If a good ground is not made from the battery, there will be no circuit completed and nothing electrical will work.

rx7ryan

yes, but it happened all of a sudden with a spark on the pos batt terminal. so, something happened, it's not just that my grounds have been messed up the whole time.

HAILERS

The headlights will turn on without a key being inserted.

There are two circuit breakers on the interior fuse box. Ones for the rear defroster and the other can be looked up in the FAQ on this site. There's a picture there of the fuse box cover.

Your battery terminal connections are suspect to me.

There is a single wire that runs from the engine fuse box and is spliced also to the alternator. It goes to the ignition switch. I suspect this wire is also disconnected or has a bad connection below the engine fuse box.

NO digital meter equals no real help on fixing electrical problems.

Personally, I have a aversion to putting sparkplug wires next to the battery post and cranking the engine over. Just lay them next to the strut tower studs.

rx7ryan

I have a digital multimeter that i can use. i'm just not very good on what settings to put it on to check stuff. I'm sure if you tell me where to check and what setting to use, i could figure out if it's the problem.

"Your battery terminal connections are suspect to me."
does this mean that you think that my connections are corroded or something? if so, they are brand new, the cables are securely fastened in the connector with bare wire touching the metal, and the paint is removed from the inner diameter of the terminal connector. so i'm sure they're fine.

I'm sure I'll never be putting the spark plugs anywhere near the battery any more.

yeah, i knew about those two circuit breakers in the fuse box, but i was just thinking that it might be a different one.

is that single wire connected directly to the main fuse or any of the other fuses? i need to know what to look for.

rx7ryan

guess i'll look around tomorrow

rx7ryan

anyone please help

rx7ryan

alright, i can't find anything to do with the single wire. I'm thinking that, since i recently tried to do some repair work on all the shotty electrical work that the previous owners did, maybe some of it got loose or something. and maybe something happened with it that let it go for good pretty much. I don't know...I'm just digging around for SOMETHING. gotta get this fixed by the 1st.