electrical issues: starting and ABS

[BS009]

So ever since I've had my car I've had issues with it starting. Sometimes when I try to start the car nothing happens. The voltage goes down and you hear all of the normal clicking, just no engagement of the starter.

I've cleaned up all of the terminals countless times and it helped a little bit the first time, but not really since then. About this time last year i put a relay in there that sends power straight from the battery to the starter solenoid when i flip a switch. I drove it like that for a long time and it has worked perfectly every single time.

 

Over the summer I replaced the starter and I hadn't had to use the switch since I installed it in June. However, I had to use it last tuesday. Lately it occasionally hesitates when i try to start it like a normal car; like it's deciding whether or not it wants to start.

 

I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar issue and they resolved it?

 

My ABS also doesn't work anymore. the light is on and my computer tells me that there's no signal coming from the FL and RR sensors. I replaced the front left sensor and the wire and it still says there's no signal. It also tells me that the voltage it gets is like 8.66. It goes down to 0 when i push the brake.

 

I'm wondering if these issues are related? possibly a corroded battery cable or auxiliary post cable. Is this common?

[TGP5sp90]

Sorry to hear your having these problems, But I hope your car was not as bad of a corrosion issue than mine was. First, see if your ignition switch looks OK, as well as some of the connectors close by. Mine were real badly corroded. Check your grounds by cleaning them up, making better contact, all these should definitly get you closer to the problem, if not hitting it.

[GTP091]

Since you replaced the starter and it worked fine then suddenly isn't maybe there's a weak connection in the lead going to the starter solenoid. You could put a voltmeter to the lead and have somebody turn it over and see what happens when it doesn't want to start.

[BS009]

The Ignition switch was one of my guesses before I replaced the starter, but my dad convinced me it was a bad starter solenoid or something. It's hard to see it where it's at but what I could see didn't look bad at all. It doesn't seem likely that it'll get corroded inside the car, but i suppose a loose connection could do that. I guess that would be the next part for me to look into.

 

Since you replaced the starter and it worked fine then suddenly isn't maybe there's a weak connection in the lead going to the starter solenoid. You could put a voltmeter to the lead and have somebody turn it over and see what happens when it doesn't want to start.

 

When we tested it during the summer that's pretty much what we did. I found that there was only 8 volts on the smaller solenoid wire when it wouldn't start. At the same time, the battery was down to like 10-11 volts or something. We tried to find out where the drop in voltage was coming from inside the car and it seemed like it lost .5 volt or so everywhere we measured it. first we did it before the ignition switch, after it, then at the VATS relay on the passenger side. It seemed to me like the longer we tested it the lower the voltage readings were.

Another thing I noticed though was the voltage inside the car was lower than outside the car.

BTW, the battery is new too.

 

What I'm going to try later today is run some extra 4 gauge cables under the hood. one from the alternator to the battery, battery to auxiliary post, and a ground wire from the battery to the frame. If the auxiliary post wire is an issue this should fix it.

hopefully I won't have to replace the ignition switch.

[BS009]

I installed 2 of the 3 cables I wanted to. I had some issues with the bolt and finding a place on the frame for the battery to ground wire. There's a pretty noticeable difference when the car's on. I've never seen my voltage gauge read above 13 when i have all of my headlamps, stereo, heat, and rear defogger on, tonight it consistently around 14.

 

I'm not sure if this solved my starting issue yet. It starts almost instantly right now, but this issue seems really intermittent except for when it's really cold out.

 

ABS still doesn't work. I'm gonna try to find the ground for the ABS computer and try to clean it up and see if that helps any.

[AL]

I think your ABS is unrelated as usually that light is on due to wheel speed sensors

[BS009]

I was hoping it wasn't getting enough power or something. I replaced one of the sensors along with its wire and it's still telling me that it's not getting any signal from it. I could have messed up when I made the definition file though. I'll look into that.

Edited November 19, 2010 by BS009

[BS009]

definition file is good. still no signal. It's telling me that the sensor wire is shorted to a ground or the battery, I replaced the wire though so I'm not sure what's going on.

 

It's also still telling me that the voltage going into the controller is like 8.66 and goes to zero when i push on the brakes.

 

FWIW, I already switched out ABS computer and they're both telling me the same thing. The ABS worked fine last year but towards the end of winter it started to act up. It wouldn't do the self test when i started it up sometimes. If I drove it for at least a mile or so and restarted the car it would do the self test and all would be good.

I think what I'm experiencing now is different because the light comes on for me when I reach 5-10 mph, and it used to just never turn off after I started the car.

 

Any ideas?

[AL]

Sounds alot like a wheel speed sensor, thats why your getting the code while moving

[BS009]

Do you think the harness could have some issues or something?

[AL]

Very possible

[AL]

I would get it scanned