BIG PROBLEM! NEED HELP! 00 Regal GS

[sampuppy1]

So I've had this car for a couple months now. Hasn't given me a whole lot of trouble. Until tonight.

 

I've been driving around all day with no problems. Got home and had to leave to go get the fiance from the gym.

 

No start condition. Courtesy entry lights came on. Cluster lit up. Lights and bungee worked. Turned to start and the starter relay clicked and everything cut off. Like an unhooked battery. Couldn't even get the key out. Odd. So I popped the hood wiggled the connections and the interior lights came back on. Same issue. Relay clicked, dead. Alright. Tightened the negative. Car started. Ran fine. Did my errand came home. Went to move the car. Relay clicked. Dead. The connection is tight. Wiggled the wire. Back in business. This process happened six times. I finally got it to start but it struggled to get running. So I shut it off and pulled the connections. Little bit of gunk in the terminals. Cleaned dried and reattached. Now for the effed up part. Nothing worked. Like everything was unhooked again. No domes. Nothing. Finally fiddled with it and got my key out. Ignition off. I hear relays clicking like crazy. Walk around the front and my side markers are lit very dimly. WHAT THE FAWK. pulled the fuse panel cover on passenger side and pull the park light fuse. Everything stops. Put it back in. Shit goes nuts. Pull it and no change. Relays still going now. I'm losing my shit at this point. Pop the underhood fuse cover. Feel around for the clicking relays.

 

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[sampuppy1]

I bumped the 18 fuel pump spd control and 19 fuel pump relays and everything paused. Pulled 18 and everything stopped. Put back in and the 13 IGN A starts going nuts. Mind you all this is with the keys off. Hanging on my belt loop. No remote start either. So I pulled the IGN A. Everything stops again. Pop it back in and the panic alarm starts going off. The horn is buzzing. Not honking. Just buzzing very loudly in the panic pattern. The low beams are on constant. Super dim. And I smell rotting eggs. I rush to get the battery disconnected. The negative is so hot I can't hardly touch it. I let everything cool down and now I have nothing. I'm fawking stumped, I almost had a battery explode in my face and my car can't even move now.

 

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[sampuppy1]

I'm so pissed off right now I don't even know where to start.

 

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[Imp558]

Is there any chance you got the polarity backwards on the battery after you cleaned the terminals?

[GnatGoSplat]

Have the battery checked.  Also remove the battery bolts and clean them thoroughly, especially the bottom side of them where it touches the inside of the battery terminal.  Also clean the battery terminals thoroughly on the inside and out.  I usually use a Dremel-like rotary tool with wire brush attachment.

 

Negative terminal getting hot sounds like bad contact.

[sampuppy1]

Is there any chance you got the polarity backwards on the battery after you cleaned the terminals?

Nope. I cleaned them individually.

 

Have the battery checked. Also remove the battery bolts and clean them thoroughly, especially the bottom side of them where it touches the inside of the battery terminal. Also clean the battery terminals thoroughly on the inside and out. I usually use a Dremel-like rotary tool with wire brush attachment.

 

Negative terminal getting hot sounds like bad contact.

I plan to have the battery checked tomorrow. Everything happened in short succession and with the last rough start condition it may have been failing slow enough to give me time to mess with so much stuff that I never got a definitive sign. And since the numbskull that put the battery in never tagged the date I have no clue how long that cheap garbage has been in there.

 

The battery terminals are themselves are clean. The cable ends are clean. I took the boots off and even cleaned where the cables are secured to the lugs. It was the cable, terminal and bolt that were hot. Along with the battery.

 

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[Imp558]

Can you test the voltage?

[GnatGoSplat]

So you did pop the bolts themselves out and cleaned them?  Mine were gunky between the bottom of flange and where it contacts the terminal.  Now when I have battery troubles, I always pop the bolts out and make sure the bottom of the flange is clean and bright as well as where it contacts the terminal.  I also add a little dielectric grease to prevent corrosion.

[sampuppy1]

Can you test the voltage?

Of what exactly?

So you did pop the bolts themselves out and cleaned them? Mine were gunky between the bottom of flange and where it contacts the terminal. Now when I have battery troubles, I always pop the bolts out and make sure the bottom of the flange is clean and bright as well as where it contacts the terminal. I also add a little dielectric grease to prevent corrosion.

I wire brushed both sides of the negative contact and put a new bolt in. The old one was hot and I dropped it down by the engine mount.....

 

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[sampuppy1]

I should also not that I wasn't always getting sparks when touching the cables to the terminals of the battery either for some reason. So that had me thinking a possible battery failure.

 

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[White93z34]

You don't list a location, but possibly if you are in the north your cables might be full of corrosion.

 

Also, get the battery load tested.

[rich_e777]

^This

 

Ive dealt with customers that had problems due to corrosion building up inside of the insulation of the battery cables. These were all top post battery cars though, our side post cables "usually" stay sealed up at the battery, at the other ends can be the problem.

[sampuppy1]

You don't list a location, but possibly if you are in the north your cables might be full of corrosion.

 

Also, get the battery load tested.

My cable ends were clean. And I used to be a heavy truck mechanic. I'm well versed in feeling for shot cables. I have one with a twist in it but they're still nice and pliable like they should be.

^This

 

Ive dealt with customers that had problems due to corrosion building up inside of the insulation of the battery cables. These were all top post battery cars though, our side post cables "usually" stay sealed up at the battery, at the other ends can be the problem.

I will have the battery load tested today. If it fails I'm getting an interstate. Always had good luck with them.

 

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[Padgett]

Whatever is getting hot that is the problem. Bad cable/terminal has resistance which causes heat and there is your problem. Don't care what it looks like.

 

ps just had to replace the negative cable on a '07 Central Florida (zero rust) car. Does have top terminals.

 

pps I only buy AGMs any more. Sears has good sales ($125 for an H6 AGM a few months ago)

Edited January 27, 2017 by Padgett

[sampuppy1]

Battery failed miserably. Read 13.5 with no load. As soon as the knob turned it dropped to 0. Walked out with a shiny new Interstate battery and she's back to normal.

 

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[sampuppy1]

The problem was that when any load was applied (even my LED domes) the voltage dropped out. This in turn caused nothing to work properly being at such a low voltage. Relays couldn't sync or anything. So the whole system went batshit crazy trying to compensate.

 

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[rich_e777]

Now that you know you have a good battery now have your alternator looked at to make sure it wasnt the cause of or damaged by the bad battery. Many times one component can be the cause of failure from the other.

[GnatGoSplat]

Battery failed miserably. Read 13.5 with no load. As soon as the knob turned it dropped to 0. Walked out with a shiny new Interstate battery and she's back to normal.

 

Glad that fixed it.  Symptoms make perfect sense for a bad battery if you think about it.  Low voltage makes electronics go nuts.  Rotten egg smell indicates heating very near the battery (or in it), causing the sulfuric acid to evaporate and produce that smell (hydrogen sulfide?).  Since wiggling the battery cable could make it work, I'd guess the battery terminal was cracked internally.

[sampuppy1]

Glad that fixed it. Symptoms make perfect sense for a bad battery if you think about it. Low voltage makes electronics go nuts. Rotten egg smell indicates heating very near the battery (or in it), causing the sulfuric acid to evaporate and produce that smell (hydrogen sulfide?). Since wiggling the battery cable could make it work, I'd guess the battery terminal was cracked internally.

After a good night's rest and some gathering of myself it made sense to me too.

 

I'll have the alternator checked today. I need to get parts for the grinding pulleys anyways.

 

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[rockfangd]

That would have been my first suggestion.

Although not too common for a battery to fail like that I am seeing it more and more. 

I think it has to do with the terminal coming  detached inside the battery and dropping off under load

[sampuppy1]

It's very possible that was the case here. I don't like cheap ass batteries. Never have.

 

My initial though was the battery. But I had a lot of other things running through my head. Based off the weak crank and weak lights I knew something wasn't right output wise.

 

Now I have another less dangerous but still annoying problem to track down. My domes are always on. Dimly lit but always on. Noticed after I put the LEDs in. The rearview mirror lights would be on. I'd tap the mirror and they'd go out but then the rear handle mounted domes would come in dim. It would always be one or the other. And if unwashed running with my high beams they would flicker when I switched to low beams. I'm thinking I have a ground wire rubbed through inside the mirror. The domes get constant power I believe. All the switches are on the ground side. The wire grounds out on the mirror board and those are on or it grounds elsewhere and the rears are on.

 

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[rockfangd]

So here is a lesson on those led lights. 

The domelamp circuit is constantly powered 12v

is it controlled/switched by the ground battery -

There is a tolerance of allowed (leakage) per say of the ground side that will not affect anything with regular filament type bulbs as the leakage is not enough to generate heat to light the bulbs.

LEDs on the other hand require very little amperage to light. That is why you will find they are on dimly.

I have run into this with several cars and my solution was to leave at least one regular bulb in the circuit somewhere to absorb the leakage.

Now on my 2 Cadillacs the interior  lamps are computer controlled and the ground inputs from the doors, switch, etc... is input into the BCM and output to the lamps from the BCM. Therefore when they are off, they are completely off.

Also note that on a typical vehicle that is not computer controlled (lamps) The on dim issue tends to be worse on wet or damp days as that is all it takes to make some kind of milliamp connection.

 

I hope this helps. You will need a good understanding of electronics and how the circuits work to know what will work together.

IIRC there is a way to put a diode inline the circuit somewhere to resolve the issue but I dont know the details.

Also top my knowledge the battery draw is not affected when they are on dimly as the pull of amperage is not changing

[sampuppy1]

Hmmmm good to know. It just jumps around from the mirror to the rear. And if the mirror ones aren't lit they won't work at all. So I know I have a problem in the mirror. Which is junk anyways. The glass has the common pool at the bottom and foggy faded mess at the top.

 

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[rockfangd]

must be a donnelly. Notorious. Likely the pins on the board are losing contact and that is why your map lights are not working.

[Nas Escobar]

If it's a Donnelly, Id get a Gentex from the yard. Theyre extremely common.