i'm in a real pinch here...

[sharinganjoe]

hey folks. well i would just like to start off by apologizing if this has been answered in another thread, but i searched around and couldn't really find anything. sorry for this breach of etiquette if i'm cluttering this forum.

at any rate, i bought my first 240 back in october. it's a 1993. even then, on cold days, i would have to crank it a couple times to get it started. when it did start, many times it would stall out right afterwards and i'd have to crank it a couple more times to get it started again. when i pushed the throttle to keep the rpms up, they would actually drop first, then raise up. i'd have to do this several times and eventually the rpms would raise immediately after i depress the throttle.

so then, the other day it was exceptionally cold out and i cranked the car rather rapidly and it wasn't catching. then, i went to crank it again and everything just died. all the lights on the dash and the clock and everything went out. i tried cranking it again, and the car didn't make any noise whatsoever.

i tested the battery, that's still good. i tested the starter, that's still good. the previous owner recently replaced the alternator. i don't know what i should do, and i need to use my car to get back to school on tuesday and right now it's sitting in my girlfriend's garage on jackstands and i fear that if i leave it here any longer, it may agitate her mom.

please help.
Modified by sharinganjoe at 5:44 PM 1/18/2009

[the converted]

There's a 75 amp fuse under the hood, that sounds like its the problem.

[carkook]

Your car will still start and run with the 75 amp fuse blown, but thats a good place to start. Just start with the basics make sure battery terminals are nice and tight, check grounds, fuses as said before. If all that is good then start tracing power and find where you lose it. My guess is just a battery temerminal or ground.

[sharinganjoe]

sorry in advance, i'm really a noob here.

okay, so i've only been able to work on my car a couple days since i last posted. this is what i've done:

cleaned battery terminals again.

i fully charged the battery with a battery charger and tried just starting my car again, same thing, everything electric dies and will not come on again.

i bought an actron remote starter switch http://www.actron.com/product_detail.php?pid=16169 and connected this to the starter. the ground post on the battery sparked and then all dash lights shut off again, chime stopped working, etc. is this method different than just taking a wire and connecting it directly from the starter to the positive post of the battery?

the way i connected this was just the way they said to in the instruction manual, one end at the positive terminal of the starter, and one at the ground. however, does connecting it like this bypass the stuff i'm trying to bypass?

could it be the cable that goes from the battery to the starter? i bought a multimeter, should i set it to ohms and check the resistance on this line? how will i know when i check the resistance of the fuses and the grounds if i'm getting too much resistance?

ooooh, i also have a crimestopper alarm system. it's the cs2000 series iii. the previous owner had this installed a little over two years ago. i know it's connected to the doorlock on the driver's side, but i don't think it's got the starter kill switch. i tried putting it into valet mode but i couldn't find the switch under the dash. also, i didn't think that a starter kill switch would just drain the battery like that.

once again, i'm really sorry for being a noob. i'm trying to learn, but i'm really at the end of my rope here.

[carkook]

It really just sounds like the battery terminals arn't tight enough.

[sharinganjoe]

they're really tight. why would that cause the battery to suddenly drain as soon as i crank it or even just connect it to the starter?

[NizzleS13]

the alarm could be pulling a draw on the battery even without the alarm making sound, which could also cause it not to start. I would remove the alarm and other security devices that are on there. The reason you lost all power is from cranking the car so many times =) killed ur battery. A bad battery would also give same problems. Just test it and remove the alarm and go from there !! Let us know what happens!! Oh and make sure ur cables are extra cleean..

[sharinganjoe]

they're really tight. why would that cause the battery to suddenly drain as soon as i crank it or even just connect it to the starter?

[NizzleS13]

take your battery to a place and get it tested. If it checks out good u need to check how much voltage is going to ur starter.

[Azrial]

Make sure that your battery terminals are really tight and not broken. I have one that is broken so even though the bolt feels tight it doesn't actually tighten. I just bent it back circle using some pliers because my lights flickered and then everything went dead a few times. If it's not that. Check and make sure you have a good ground. Mine rusted underneath the battery and I had to move it to get a good connection as well. If you keep cranking the car you will adventually kill the battery so check everything make sure your battery is charged up fully then test it. I would also check the fuses as the other guys mentioned as well. Look around for burned up wires as well. I would take off the remote starter crap because those always cause problems. The less wiring the better on any car. If I was you I would find a friend to help you out on this. One that knows a bit about cars. It should be an easy problem to fix just finding it might be a pain.

[240sxmonsta]

Did you check the groundstrap that runs from the back of the engine to the firewall? My 2 cents

[FRnIsmO]

can you push start it?