Car is dead any ideas?

[motrhed87]

Driving along on this 95+ degree day and all of a sudden I lose all power and car dies. Has no juice anywhere. Checked battery and I've got 12v. Could I have blown a main fuse outta nowhere?

 

[earlbrown]

There's no fuse that powers the entire car. If the battery in the car is hot and EVERYTHING in the car is dead, I would see if a battery cable burned in two on the header or somehow every fuseable link on the starter fried (or the big nut fell off)

 

[motrhed87]

Sears gave me a new battery free of charge so that is now in. Turns out I have lights and horn.....but nothing that needs accessory or ignition power is working. I guess I will check the power connection on the starter next.

 

[1fastcobra]

Ck the starter wires. Trace them from the
Starter to the top behind the intake
May have been spliced at one point.


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[motrhed87]

Chekced the wires to the starter and I have 12V. So I only have lights...no horn or anything else. Could it be the ignition switch or short in the ignition harness?

 

[1fastcobra]

With the lights on try to start the car
Do the lights go out?

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[motrhed87]

The lights do stay on...the key chime sounds with the door open....but nothing going on. Tried wiggling the key around a bunch and still nada.

 

[1fastcobra]

Does it make any kind of noise.
Clicking anything. Does the fuel pump come on

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[motrhed87]

Nothing....no fuel pump...no click of the starter. Except for the lights working, its like there is no battery in the car.

 

[1fastcobra]

Do u have any power to any engine sensors

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[1fastcobra]

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[haywire4130]

I know it was stated above but check the three fusible links (the small wires with ring terminals on them) coming off the starter + stud... you may have 12 volts at that stud but id bet a weeks paycheck that on the other side of one of the "links" you wont have power. I know its frowned upon but stab the wires after the bulge in the links with a test light. This is where everything in the car gets power from. I had it happen to me and it did the same exact thing you described. I was at a loss but my buddy is real handy with a power probe and found the problem in 4 minutes. The fact that you have lights and a couple other things confirms you probably lost one but not all of the feeds.

 

[charlief1]

Pull on the fuseable links and see if one of them stretches. If it does then the wire's broken. One other possibility is the ignition switch on the base of the steering column. Not the most common issue but I have see it happen before.

 

[motrhed87]

The fusible links are in a bundle near the starter correct?


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[charlief1]

Attached to the same post as the main battery cable.

 

[1fastcobra]

Ck the starter wires. Trace them from the
Starter to the top behind the intake
May have been spliced at one point.


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Yep

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[Phoneguy]

Factory alarm????
Bryan

 

[1fastcobra]

Factory alarm????
Bryan

Man that's a good. ????

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[motrhed87]

Yes it does have a factory alarm. It also has an aftermarket Viper alarm that the previous owner installed but I never enabled. If the alarm went belly up, it wouldnt have caused the car to shut off while running would it????

 

[haywire4130]

The fusible links are in a bundle near the starter correct?


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Picture the pos lug on the starter as the "battery" for the sake of argument, the fusible links from that feed power to everything in the car except the ecm power iirc, thats probably why 1fastcobra was asking if you had power to any sensors. We're both telling you the same thing, just using different words. I dont think it was wise of the general to power most of the car from a stud at the hottest part of the car, but I'm no electrical engineer. Now add 25+ years of searing heat and vibration and you can see how one of those frail wires could fail