can't start car without laptop hooked up all of a sudden???

[1985GN]

after putting the car back together last month i had a problem with it starting that every once in a while i would go to crank it and only the green power light would be on and the yellow cam light would be blinking like crazy with new lights showing on the injectors firing. i took the box out and checked all the wiring about 2 weeks ago and have had no problems since putting it back together. well today i went ot start it up and now its doing the same thing but here is the catch. when i hook my laptop up and connect with the ecu all of a sudden the red crank light comes on along with the green power light and the yellow light stops flashing and stays on solid and hte fourth like lights up like its supposed and the car fires right up. the rest of the day everytime i shut the car off i had to connect through the laptop to start the car back up?? any ideas on what happend all of a sudden??? im lost and this is getting annoying having to connect every time. thanks for any help guys

 

[1985GN]

after thinking some more the car started up fine after finishing it up but started having problems after i washed it. last night was first time the problem has surfaced again and it was after driving in a heavy down pour of rain for 25min then parking it outside over night which i never does. any ideas on if something can be getting wet?? msd box has been tried hooked up and unhooked and made no differnece

 

[Razor]

If water is getting into the car, better have a close look at your connectors and terminals. Its baddd news to get corrossion as it can cuase sensors to not read properly and you can hurt your motor.

On Buicks it was a known issue to have water flow down the ecm connectors and rot the termination on the ecm. The rubber grommet on the passenger door frame would allow the water in. Start unplugging connectors and see which one is wet and address it. Dont know what else to offer.

HTH

 

[86 got boost]

+2 on razor, my leak came in from the airbox casing and around the blower motor, would drip right on top of computer terminal plug, and right side of the center counsil under dash also.

 

[Craig Smith]

Sounds like you are losing ground connections that are being established via the serial port in the ECM, which is a bad thing. Can lead to laptop and/or ECM damage if not resolved... I'd agree so far with the water issue.

 

[1985GN]

thanks for the help guys it was a little bit of water in the connectors..cleaned all the connectors up and used some dielectric grease and all has been fine for some time now..the car rarely sees water so at the moment im just staying away from any water till i can see where its coming in...i have an ac delete plate and this did not happen at all last year when the heat was in so ill search some other time for it.