Gremlins of the electrical sort

[Redline]

Might be a small problem, but I wanted to see what you guys thought before I dove in...

Yesterday I went to start my car, and halfway through the crank, the whole system died. My horn was weak, couldn't even turn on the blower. I checked under the hood to make sure the battery cables were connected tight, which they were. Got back in the car and everything came to life.

This repeated itself last night. Almost had to get a tow, but then I remembered what Pedro taught me about roll-starting a car! :headbang: :whip2:

So I'm thinking it's most likely a bad battery ground. I don't see it being a battery issue, more like the cables. When the car is running, it's got power from the alternator... but when I intentionally used: high beams, '4' on the blower, radio and a power window switch, my car shut off because of lack of juice.

FWIW, this problem has yet to show itself this morning.

 

[4WRXter]

Stating the pretty obvious, but sometimes it's the simple things.....

Even though you say battery connections are tight, are they clean under the clamps?

Battery could simply be dead. As in, won't take a charge.

Sometimes in the 120v electrical world, a heavy load(like you are describing) will cause an intermittent loose connection to act up. Re-check all the major connections. Not only look at and wiggle them, but maybe disconnect each one, clean it and re-connect. You might not even think you find the problem, but in doing the above, you fix the problem.

Good luck.

 

[Pedro]

I would first take off the battery terminals and get one of these:

but I would also check the ground from the battery to the chassis. and to the engine. If these are rusty or starting to break the extra load can cause everything to fail.

 

[Rightseat]

engine ground strap is a classic gremlin-inducer. it gets corroded--intermittent ground issues like you describe

it gets caked with oil/grime--intermittent issues like you describe. also, oily ground strap gains elec resistance when it's hot...leading to hot start probs.

you may have pooched cell in the batt

you may have spooks in residence somewhere under the hood, try garlic fronds and/or driving stakes thru the wiring harness? :idea1: