'96 I30 no-eletricity problem

[gbxk86a]

The power of my 1996 I30 electrical got completely cutoff after I pumped in gas. There was not a single light on the dash or anywhere. The power door, power windows did not work. There was corrosion on the positive terminal of the terminal. I came back with tools and sandpaper to clean up the terminal and the cable. I thought I did a pretty good job, but the electric did not come back. Had to tow to the dealer, who first claimed it was the battery, which is only five month old. Since I was at work, I asked my wife to take the battery to Sears from the dealer site for a warranty claim. Sears checked out and said the battery was good. It had 12V and they charged it up to 12.6V. Took it back to the dealer, who claimed they were puzzled. A few hours later, they said they fixed the problem by simply cleaning the terminal, which I though I did pretty well, but perhaps not good enough. I have two questions:

(1) I may not have done a perfect job, but I am sure I cleaned most of the corrosion off. How much cleaning does it take to let electricity pass through?

(2) Is there another possiblity that a bad switch or a computer that can temporarily cutoff the power to the car completely. One gentleman in the station mentioned it could be a burntout of neutral safety switch (for transmission) and the gentleman with the tow truck said it may be the computer after he could not jump start the car.

This actually happened a couple of times before I changed the battery five months ago. However, each time, the electricity came back after an hour or so. I thought it was the battery and had it changed. The corroded terminal could be the culprit as the dealer said, but I just want to make sure if there are other possibility which causes this problem intermittently so that I can have it checked too.

Thank you for any input.

[Q451990]

I'd be looking for a main fuse or relay with corrosion or an intermittant connection. I don't think the ECU would shut down the entier electrical system, but I don't know for sure on the I30. I'd also check for intermittant ground connections on the battery harness.

Heath

[bdc98I30]

Had the same thing on a '96 I30 I owned previously. I had it towed to the dealer when it finally stopped running. Ended up telling me that the positive batt. cable was corroded about 36" into the harness. About $300 and 4 hours later, they said they were able to splice the harness. The car ran great up unitl I sold it. However, I was never sure if that was the real cause for all the power to shut off.