fliplyricist1

Sheesh, what a day. Well, I decided to clean my engine bay with simple green and a pressure washer this morning. I double bagged the alternator, distributor cap, and the open air filter. Everything appeared to have gone 'fine.' Washed and waxed the car and let the engine bay dry off for a good hour and a half. Car started right up and everything was fine and dandy. Drove home about 15 miles and parked her. Again, nothing suspicious to report.

So I go out to her about 3 hours later to go to my gf's house, and unlock it with the remote (oem alarm system). Everything is fine and normal. Then I do the usual routine to start her up, and right when I put the key into the 'starter' position, the car just gives a sudden noise and then...nothing.

No lights in the car, no signs of life, no nothing. Tried disconnecting the battery, checked all the fuses in both the engine bay and under the driver's side compartment...no busted fuses. Disconnected the ecu fuse as well.

Then I went out with my mobile jump starter and try to place it on the positive and negative terminals of the battery. Hopped in the cabin, still no lights...no nothing.

Damnit!

I do notice, however, that whenever I open the door, I do hear a 'click' sound coming from around the dash area. I don't know what this means. I just recently replaced my alternator with a new one that 'appeared' to have been fine and strong (no battery light flashing like my old one).

Thing that bothers me is that there's no interior lights, no nothing, not even with the portable jump starter. I don't know how, but do you think my pressure washing earlier caused a late problem? Do you think I set off my alarm immobilizer? I have no effin clue.

Any ideas here guys? This really sucks ass...arggghhh!!!!! This is the last thing I need right now. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated though. Thanks in advance.

agranado

Clicking? I hate clicking.


Double check that battery. It's almost always the damn battery.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

clicking is probably the starter relay. I would check the bat and the starter connections. also check all your fuses if u have a fuse tester

YtseJammer

Happened to me before. The battery was completely shot.

fliplyricist1

^^ damnit, it's an optima red top

but perhaps it was already close to death before I replaced the shotty alternator a few days ago. But wouldn't the new alternator have charged it a bit in the past few days?

I guess I'm going to have to have someone try and give me a jump start the traditional way. If I can't even get any interior lights or anything with a jump start, then I think I'm really screwed ....

I still don't understand why my portable jumper machine didn't even give me any kind of interior lights or anything ?

fliplyricist1

hey man, sorry for the n00bishness, but where is the starter located on our 3.0's?

thanks

AznX TL

once again,sounds like a bad ground.

fliplyricist1

ok so I was talking with a friend, and well...he asked me about my engine cleaning technique

and well....he asked me if I covered my battery. To which I replied 'no.' Then he laughed profusely. I honestly didn't even think to cover the battery (yes I know, insert flame smiley here), though I covered every other vital component.

Do you think my optima redtop got flooded? It's just weird because the car ran just fine after I pressure washed...it just didn't start much later afterwards. Do you think it was just a delayed response?

Just tossing an idea out there...

AznX TL

i dont think you flooded it.. don't they use red tops in boats? if you had a short, it would have shorted while it was wet.

fliplyricist1

^^ Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking...optimas were pretty much made for adverse conditions...oh well

I guess I'll just wait til the morning til I can get a real traditional jump start. If that doesn't give me any signs of life, then time to panic and have her towed to a mechanic

thanks again guys

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Right under the battery tray next to the tranny lines, bat didn't get flooded, btw blue tops are used in boats. Check your fuses, sounds like it shorted something

fliplyricist1

ill def do that

thanks man

Jimcoold99

If you cant get it jumped off..take it to a local auto parts store. I know where im from they will charge it and test it for free. You could have left something on by accident battery drained and thats all prob no big deal IMO. GL

fliplyricist1

Thanks for the replies guys...



Well went out to the car today to try and jump start her up again with the portable jumper

no dice...still no signs of life, no interior lights, no nothing.

This is freakin incredible.

I checked all the visible under hood/interior fuses and nothing looks blown. For the bigger fuses (like the 100a battery fuse), if that little visible copper 'wire' is in tact that means it's still good, right?

I took off the cover for the ABS fusebox, and noticed that the two big harness plugs had some sort of creamish slude all over it. Is this normal?

I checked the ground wiring, and from what I can physically 'tell' everything looks fine.

So either my portable jump started doesnt have enough juice to even power on the interior lights or I'm seriously fucked.

And again, for those that may have missed it, I drove the car around perfectly fine about an hour after washing the engine bay. Car started/drove absolutely fine...nothing fishy whatsoever. It's just after I let it sit for another 2 hours afterwards that this happened. WTF.

I guess I'll just wait til monday to have it towed to the shop where I bought my optima redtop from. this really sucks.

972.2

arent you supposed to cover around the holes for the spark plugs on the valve cover too? i mean i know theyre pretty sealed but better safe than sorry.

fliplyricist1

yeah that's a good point, I didn't

but I pulled all of them and saw no signs of moisture/condensation...I only lightly misted those areas too

fliplyricist1

OMG OMG OMG OMG

so I decided, since it's free through AAA, might as well have the battery truck drop by and test my battery and alternator.

Well, while waiting, I decided to fiddle around with my battery and troubleshoot some more.

As a last ditch effort, I tried removing the positive terminal post. However, it wouldn't budge, even after loosening the screw. Odd. I thought perhaps maybe it got lodged or corroded...since I tried to pry it both upwards and to and fro and it wouldn't budge. So I broke out the wd40 and doused it down real good. Then suddenly I notice my interior is lighted up.WTF?? So I proceed to hammer the shit out of the positive terminal, until it finally came off. I cleaned both the post and the connector thoroughly, but noticed no corrosion. I put the positive terminal back and there's a big spark and the interior lights once again are on!

So I'm thinking, wow wtf I think it's fixed. I go inside and proceed to crank the engine, as all the interior and dash lights appear to function normally. Once I put the key in the 'start' position, all I hear is one click and then all the lights/electrical cut off. Whoah, I'm thinking something shorted.

So I go back to the battery and remove the positive terminal once again, wait a minute, then put it back. Once again, interior lights are back on. Tried to crank it again, and same result. Shit, I'm thinking there's a short or the starter is shot.


Guy finally gets there and tests out my battery. Everything checks out fine. So I show him what happens when I try to start the car and he thinks it's odd. So he sands down both posts and connectors with his special tool and sprays them down thoroughly with anti corrosion spray. I try to start up again and same result. So at this point he thinks it may be my starter. We disconnect the positive lead again and he gives the starter a couple taps with his hammer. Reconnect the battery and I try to crank. Nothing again.

So I'm like 'okay man thanks for the help I guess I'll have to have my car towed to a place to have my starter replaced this monday.' Then he was like, hey wait...I just noticed, when you tried to start your car, there was a brief spark that occured on the positive terminal. We were both stumped. I figured it was a short somewhere, but where? Then he breaks out his wrench and proceeds to tighten the two bolts that hold down the wires on the terminal connector

He then tells me to crank it one more time. I do, and it immediately fires up! Wtf...so he tells me to shut it off and then try to restart it. Once again, it fires up perfectly.

So somehow, someway...I dunno if it was directly related to my pressure washing, but the positive terminal on my battery decided to fail. Perhaps it was mere coincidence, but I just never tightened down those two bolts all the way I guess, so it wasn't a secure connection.

Moral of the story is, my car is perfectly fine...and well, I'm going to church tomorrow.

Can ah getta witniss??

Jimcoold99

ah Yah the way it sounded it was nothing too bad..just a couple of loose nuts. glad to hear prob is solved..

ChristCL

LOL amen brotha.. woo hoo church!!