mfewtrail Posted August 24, 2003 Report Share Posted August 24, 2003 my parents 94 Buick Regal custom sedan is not starting now, battery and alternator are basically new, battery was replaced and fully charged when the new alt was put on as preventative maintenance. Anyways, to start w/, the Regal started intermittently stalling/cutting off at random, no SES light has shown as far as I know, there isn't anyway for me to check it either as it's a 94 and has a different diag connector. Anyways, the battery is still fully charged, I checked all fuses and contact points and they seem to be fine. The car has power in the key position before run, but nothing is working except the interior lights, the door open/key in ignition chime, and the brake lights. The headlights and everything isn't working, nor will the car make ANY noise at all when trying to crank. Tried cranking it in neutral already to no advail. My final question is, would the ignition switch cause this, or it having some power in the postion before run an indication that the ignition switch is still good. I'm going to tinker w/ it a bit tomorrow if I get a chance to do so, trying to save them some towing cost and labor cost if possible. If you have any suggestions to offer, that would be great. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slade901 Posted August 24, 2003 Report Share Posted August 24, 2003 First, if you have you no head lights then try to check the battery cables and make sure it is tight on the battery terminal and usually the positive battery cable is connected to a post near the fuel pump relay/fuse and held by a nut and screw (so make sure it is tight). If the connection is barely tight then you will have lights that draw less power but not enough to power your head lights nor crank the engine. Secondly, check the fuses inside the car and also the fuses/relays in the engine bay. Third, even though you said that the battery is new, it might have drained. If you have a battery charger/starter then you can either charge the battery until it is full or set it to start it and see if that works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfewtrail Posted August 24, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2003 As I believe I stated in my initial post, I checked the battery already and it's fully charged, as well as checking all fuses and whatnot, all were fine. Let me make a correction to my first post though, it does not have any power in the position before run, it has some power in the position between being able to remove the key and then turning over to accessories or whatever you want to call that. My father said that it tried to crank today, but then started doing the same thing...so I'm at a loss, it's going to be taken to a local shop so they can diagnose the problem properly if I can't take a good look at it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robby1870 Posted August 24, 2003 Report Share Posted August 24, 2003 So when you turn the key to start it, there is Absolutely nothing at all??? And it was cuttin out too?? I think the ignition switch is a good place to start Robby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfewtrail Posted August 25, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 First, if you have you no head lights then try to check the battery cables and make sure it is tight on the battery terminal and usually the positive battery cable is connected to a post near the fuel pump relay/fuse and held by a nut and screw (so make sure it is tight). If the connection is barely tight then you will have lights that draw less power but not enough to power your head lights nor crank the engine. Secondly, check the fuses inside the car and also the fuses/relays in the engine bay. Third, even though you said that the battery is new, it might have drained. If you have a battery charger/starter then you can either charge the battery until it is full or set it to start it and see if that works. PROBLEM SOLVED ......went and fooled around w/ the car a little while ago at my rent's house and fixed the problem. Went like this, I left the ignition switch turned to the accessorie position before run and had the headlights on and started jiggling wires around and making sure all fuses/relay contact points were clean and whatnot.....after this, nothing at all happened, still the same.....then I shut the hood pissed off that I couldn't find anything that looked wrong, and then when the hood shut the headlights flickered on for a second and then died...so I opened er' back up and started looking again, I checked the battery terminals for the 100th time and everything else in between. Finally took a closer look at the remote positive terminal and removed the nut and whatnot from it...and found that the plastic underneath was burnt and caked all around the nut keeping it from making good contact w/ the post...I scraped all the plastic off, put a washer undeneath to keep it off the plastic holder from now on and then secured everything tightly.....go to the car, everything inside is working and then I turn the car over and it starts instantly running like new again. Slade, you had the right area in mind..just a tad bit different scenario had happened....appreciate all the help from those who responded!!!!!! Now I'm wondering why in the hell that terminal would get so hot as to melt the plastic around it :?: maybe there's another unseen problem that's causing some electrical draw/too much current and burning the plastic around the remote postive terminal connection.......oh well...at least I got it running. Thanks again for the input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slade901 Posted August 25, 2003 Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 That's good news.. Well for Electrical Rule.. Make sure every electrical connectors are tight and secured ie. clamps, nuts, etc. If the connections are not tight and just barely loose, what happens is that it will create a very high resistance in that junction and will heat up that junction and burn the wires and wire insulation. That nut that you just tightened up and has some burned plastic may have been caused by the nut itself being loose in the first place and caused that junction to heat up because of high resistance and melted the plastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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