pretty severe electrical problem *SOLVED*

[scottzg]

Ok, so this one is my own fault, always disconnect the battery when installing a stereo!! Symptoms are as follows:

Stereo, when connected to an "always on" power source (ie the battery) will die whenever another powered item is turned on (brake lights especially) But will turn back on immediately after.

Starter does not even try to work.

If you jump it, it will run just fine, although it will continually hunt for ideal idle speed at idle. (Coulda accidently reset the ECU)

Battery was exchanged and the new battery had the same symptoms.

Fuses appear to be intact

What do yall think?

[vrg3]

Can you describe more about what happened to cause the trouble? What were you doing, where did you cause a short circuit, did you see a spark arc...?

How is your stereo connected to power?

It kind of sounds like maybe one or both of your battery cables got fried...

[scottzg]

ok, one 15 amp fuse on the bottom of the kick panel fusebox was toasted. My stereo is basically hard wired into the battery, and i have a switch that controls the ignition wire. I never saw a spark arc, in fact im not even sure when the problem started exactly.

Interesting news. The stereo only cuts out when the rpm's are not idling. When i am idling and apply the brake, the radio keeps playing. Same goes for when i am driving and put the clutch in and let the rpm's drop to 500 but im rolling.

[Yukonart]

Is your battery charging okay? I'm starting to wonder if you toasted the voltage regulator (alternator).

[scottzg]

i appear to have fixed my problems and grown a new crop of them. The car now tries to start under its own power, but when i go from acc to start, the interior lights dim and there's not enough power for the starter to turn over (it did, once) I'm thinking the ignition wire is kaput, any ideas? Any advice on fixing it?

Did i mention im only having these problems because my stereo and entire CD collection was stolen? At least some guy is $20 bucks richer.

[Legacy777]

you're jumping around here too much.

Start from the beginning. "I did this/someone did this....(....)" "Now my car does this......(....)"

You mentioned your stereo system is 'hard wired' to the battery. You have a fuse in that wiring?

have you tried completely removing the stereo to see if it's a "stereo" issue, or possibly other electrical problem.

[scottzg]

NO REAL REASON TO READ THIS, I GOT IT WORKING

ok, fine fine.

I first could drive it if i got a jump start, but it would not try to turn over. I removed the stereo entirely. It would seek for good idle, and i was using the radio to test the problem. The radio was not the culprit, i removed all the new wiring right away, i later reinstalled the radio so i could drive it closer to home and see what was up. The radio, for all intents and purposes, had a wire running from the positive terminal, to the radio, to the chassis.

Old news. Now it is not drivable. When i jump, it will run until it is disconnected from the battery of the other car with one battery, and with the other the interior lights dim when you move from accessories to start on the ignition. It tried to crank from there 1 time. I have replaced the wire running from the positive terminal to the fuse box, and added 1 negative grounding. This morning i am going to replace the ignition start wire and the starter to positive terminal wire.

There was 1 fuse in the kick panel that was knocked out, it was a 15 on the bottom level.

sigh....

*EDIT*

Well, i got it running again. The wire from the battery to the starter was still bad. Looks like I fried every wire the battery was connected to. Neat.