Okay so the car would have trouble cranking over, and it finally gave out. I put in a new starter, and it seemed to fix the problem. It worked for a few drives, and I parked it in front of my house. I just went outside, go to start it... and the starter sounds like it's dying. It then just flat out died. No power whatsoever. No headlights, interior lights, or anything. Even with a jumpstart there is no power to anything. Fuses in the engine bay look fine.

What the f'k. Short? What could it be????!!!

 

Battery or cables or both.

 

If it was a short I am pretty sure you would have a blown main fuse.

 

Have you had your battery tested? Its possible that its quite dead. If its not bad, then check all your wires leading from the battery to the fuse box and the battery to the starter and ALL the grounds as well.

 

could easily be bad battery grounds. this can cause premature battery drainage and weak crankage. plus its free to fix so why not start there?

 

Check means take them apart and make sure the contacting surfaces are CLEAN, and then put them back together nice and snug. The dirtier the contact surfaces, the less zap is getting through.

 

True, though even a dirty connection will give some voltage. Chances are a wire is cooked somewhere, OR the ignition switch has gone to hell.

 

+1 for wiring.

 

Can't be the ignition switch, that wouldn't explain the lack of power to EVERYTHING. I'm going to bust out the can of electrical spray cleaner tomorrow, and check it all out. Will post results tomorrow, thanks for all the replies. Please check back tomorrow for results guys.

 

I don't think I can find the bad connection on my own. I barely know how to use a voltmeter/ohmmeter. Anyone know anyone who could help me fix it for cheap in the San Jose, CA area?

 

The problem was the battery terminal. I couldn't tell because it was the screw in battery terminal type. So when I used the voltmeter one time, it read 12v, but another time it read 0. So the contact was loose inside screw-hole. I could've probably stuffed some conductive crap in there, but decided to just get a new battery anyway.

 

You didn't disconnect the battery before you replaced the starter?

 

I sometimes do but sometimes Im lazy, I actually cover the terminals on the starter end so it wont spark if I dont disconnect the battery.

 

I did disconnect the battery before I replaced the starter. I think the connection was bad after I reconnected the negative battery terminal.

 

it seems you have found the creme filling....a couple more months and you might just make shadetree level 1! congrats on the fix

 

and I had a short once that smokes wires instead of the right amp factory fuse....can you buy luck better than mine?