Help! Red Dragon down! :'(

[Clawhammer]

As I pull up to an intersection tonight the car sputters and dies. Try to start her and she cranks real slow and weak for a 4 or 5 seconds...then nothing. Dead. Lights and door chime work great, nothing else works. Can't turn the car on or to accessory. Lights come on bright as the sun, battery shows 12.5V. Just won't turn on. Had to tow her home. Anybody got any ideas?

My worst nightmare has been dying at an intersection/ traffic light. Lucky me my worst nightmare comes true at a 12-lane intersection.

/sigh

[aNi_mE]

Perhaps maybe a loose or high resistance cable from battery to starter? Have you recently worked on the vehicle? always check where you've been. 3 things that make an engine work compression/fuel/spark GL!

[le_ryan]

its gotta be an engine control fuse or something electrical, then check for lose ends

[jdm_griffin]

Check the alternator fuse.

The big gray one that says 75amp on the top.

It could be draining your battery and also check grounds.

[White Comet]

pretty much everythings been covered. check grounds, alt fuse, etc

[Ca_Silvia]

Sounds like an alternator, try boosting it/charging the battery if it starts up and runs fine let it idle for a bit. If it dies out again your alternator is not charging your battery.

[Clawhammer]

I checked the alt fuse last night, and pulled the under-dash wiring all out and checked for loose ends in the switch before towing her. It was dark and I was under stress, so maybe I missed something, going to check again.

The battery has a charge...so it's gotta be something under the dash since the car doesn't even turn on (radio, radar detector, fuel pump (it's loud) etc.).

[Clawhammer]

Oh and my alarm doesn't do anything. Arm/ Disarm/ Panic/ etc. Dash LED doesn't even flash.

[white90esex]

I would deff check main fuses cause a friends mazda would do the same thing kinda. All that came on were parking lights and gauge cluster. The dome light, radio, and other things wouldnt come on, no warming lights either.

Turned out to be some main engina fuze.

[Clawhammer]

Everything looks good under the knee bolster and steering column. All the fuses in the fuse/ relay boxes are fine.

Here's what works:-Door chime-All interior lights-All exterior lights-Power door locks

Here's what doesn't work:-Car acc.-Car on-Alarm-Radar (wired to ignition) see below-Radio & amp (because car doesn't turn to acc. or on)-Seatbelt

[dickie]

sounds like stuff thats wired to the ignition, obviously. if you have checked all fuses and relays i would start checking wiring from there.

who built your swap harness?

[goalguy02]

I

Everything looks good under the knee bolster and steering column. All the fuses in the fuse/ relay boxes are fine.

Here's what works:-Door chime-All interior lights-All exterior lights-Power door locks

Here's what doesn't work:-Car acc.-Car on-Alarm-Radar (wired to ignition) see below-Radio & amp (because car doesn't turn to acc. or on)-Seatbelt

It definately sounds like an Ignition switch problem. The only things that work do not require ignition power to work. The things that don't work do require a switch 12v power. I would try another ignition switch.

[Clawhammer]

The guy I bought the motor from who helped me do the swap.

I checked every fuse with a DMM just in case...all is kosher. Ever heard of a 3 month old ignition switch spontaneously dying? The alarm is spidered into that...maybe that's why it's not working??

I got a beer for anyone who can help me figure this out.

[Clawhammer]

Ok, uplugged the ignition switch and tested the car side of the plug (the white cable that goes up to a fuseable link)...no power.

[blinker_fluid]

Did you check the fuses on the positive battery terminal, also I remember you having trouble starting it while messing with the speed sensor, double check the harness around those plugs.

[S13xCrazy]

Alright, your checking in the wrong place. I had the same thing happen to me (couldnt use my windows or anything like that)

Check under the hood in the fuse box to the left. There is a fuse box to the left. In that fuse box there are fuses. Check each of the fuses on top. If its broken you will see it through the top. It is the box type fuse, not your normal 2 prongers

[Clawhammer]

One of the first things I did was test all of those fuses.

Blinker, the reason why I could get it started the other day was that I knocked a plug off the starter while I was fooling around under there. Not the problem this time.

[Sil40_Mayhem]

Shot in the dark time (since I'm not mechanic):

- Loose grounds?- Broken/faulty battery terminal connections?- ????

Sorry, not very well versed in the auto mechanicals and whatnot.

[blinker_fluid]

Double check the b/y wire coming off the starter, and the interlock relay

[Clawhammer]

All battery connections and grounds are tight.

The b/y wire is the one I knocked off the other night, it was one of the first things I checked (it actually doesn't have a plug it just kinda sits there, which is how I knocked it off to begin with). I used to have an auto, so I don't think I have an interlock relay?

One of the fuses, even though it checks out with the dmm rattles furiously, so I pulled out the p/w fuse and put it in it's place (happens to be the igntion switch fuse...I thought for sure it was going to work, but no.

[Clawhammer]

Ok it was that fuse, I didn't plug the igntion switch back in lololol. The fuse in question looks perfectly fine, reads fine when tested with a dmm, but rattles when I shake it. Who would have known!?

[blinker_fluid]

since it was an auto check the wires for the inhibitor switch, two thick wires by the relay box

[simmode1]

Dude, this is the kind of stuff that makes me love NICO!

[Clawhammer]

Ok bad news gang. I put the P/W fuse in and drove up to the autoparts store to buy a new one and bought an extra just in case. Left the autoparts store and got about 5 minutes down the road and popped the fuse again. Put my spare in and made it about 20 feet before...you guessed it, popped that too.

Jumped it with a wire which instantly melted but I got smoke coming from steering column cover too. woah wtf? The wires on the switch side of the plug are melting...dripping the plastic stuff off.

SO. Do I have a bad ignition switch? I just got back from ordering one...the only other possibility is my alarm system? It's been in for a couple weeks now with no problem. I doubt it's that, but that's the only other thing I can think of.

To be specific, the white (W) wire and the black and red (B/R) wires are getting hot.

This blows...I wasn't about to tow it home in rush hour traffic so after over an hour of diddling around in a parking lot I had to leave her.

[simmode1]

Damn, I thought problem was fixed... here's a bump fo ya!

[Clawhammer]

So did I, just towed her home...again.

[2projects2many]

It most definitely sounds like a bad switch, and/or you harness in the column is going to ground maybe due to insulation being scraped off due to disassembling many times maybe for accessories, gauge removal etc. Either way, once you get a new switch- trace the big white and red wires for softness and cut out replace the "melted" areas as the wire has been ruined from getting hot and will forever give you increased resistance that the system can't handle.

so in short- replace switch, melted wires, and just for safeties sake- if there are other accessories connected to these wires, remove them and put a relay in place to run all these add-ons too.

Good luck with it and don't half-*** it- this is your baby your dealing with.

[Clawhammer]

Put the new ignition switch in...still does it. It's a clean switch (free of the alarm and my push button starter). Turned with a screwdriver and it started heating up again.

Now what??? :'(

[IanS]

One of the leads off the ignition switch is grounding before it reaches its given ACC, start tracing wires, check all the wires, if any of the ACC wires have no resistance to ground, you have a short, trace it till you find the break. I would check the FSM, they often have very good troubleshooting procedures for problems like this.

[blinker_fluid]

Pull the battery cables and the blown fuse, and with the multi meter set to ohm's put one end on a good chassis ground and the other end to the wire in question(on the igniton switch end) if the wire is grounding its probly bad. Also exactly which fuse is blowing, how many amps?