Help! Car completely died on the road. No power

theRedStorm

forum member
Joined
Aug 30, 2015
Posts
149
Reaction score
21
So I recently replaced my alternator as the voltage regulator on my old one was dying. Did the swap and turn on the car. Everything ran great for a day or two. But today, I was gunning down the highway and BAM outta no where, complete power loss. No lights. No power steering, no signals. I managed to pull over. Now there was ZERO electrical power in the car. Like there isn't a battery connected. Oddly, my halo led rings were still on and functioning even tho my car could not get power no matter what. While on hold for a tow truck, I decided to take the ground cable off terminal to see if I can reset the car. Wait a few minutes and then reconnected everything. It still didn't work. I disconnected ground again, waited 10-12 minutes, and reconnected. Everything worked flawlessly. Drove the car back home no problems.

When the car died, I mean it completely died. Like the gauges froze where there were and wouldn't move. Couldn't get the car to power up at ALL til I removed the negative terminal. All these issues
Any idea what this could be? My guess would be bad ground. My LED halos were still working. Don't understand why those didn't completey die
 

Dino Dino Bambino

I have a red car
Joined
Aug 11, 2014
Posts
3,880
Reaction score
1,751
Location
Cyprus
A bad ground is most likely but also check all the red positive cable connections for looseness or corrosion to be sure there isn't another issue.
 

RED09GT

Equal Opportunity Offender
S197 Team Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Posts
2,630
Reaction score
488
Location
Kelowna, B.C. Canada
Check the wiring of the halos for a short. If they operated and nothing else did, they are probably the issue.
 

Juice

forum member
Joined
Aug 24, 2017
Posts
4,622
Reaction score
1,904
Not really enougb info IMO to offer specific help.
With that said, I dont know what would happen on these cars if the battery was disconnected while the car is running. I "could" cause what happened. So it "could" be one of the cables or batt terminals has a bad connection. And that would be an OPEN circuit, not a sbort.
Where did you tap power from for the balos?
 

LarryJM

Resident Fuktard
Joined
Jul 15, 2018
Posts
1,008
Reaction score
151
I had a bad alternator and my car did the same thing. It ran on the battery for about 2 hours and then just died. The battery was healthy so after sitting for 10 minutes it would start and run again for about 10 minutes and then die again. Actually did this several times. There is an amp hour rating for these batteries.
 

JEWC_Motorsports

S197 Junkie
S197 Team Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2010
Posts
20,471
Reaction score
1,596
Location
Texas
Juice, does the early s197's have a mega fuse? My 2012 does but i dont think i ever looked to see if my 08 had one.
 

Juice

forum member
Joined
Aug 24, 2017
Posts
4,622
Reaction score
1,904
Juice, does the early s197's have a mega fuse? My 2012 does but i dont think i ever looked to see if my 08 had one.

Like a main fuse link? Not really sure on that.

There is the heavy gauge 12v feed from the battery + to the BEC, and its all in the BEC from there. If there is anything, it would have to be that wire.
 

theRedStorm

forum member
Joined
Aug 30, 2015
Posts
149
Reaction score
21
Not really enougb info IMO to offer specific help.
With that said, I dont know what would happen on these cars if the battery was disconnected while the car is running. I "could" cause what happened. So it "could" be one of the cables or batt terminals has a bad connection. And that would be an OPEN circuit, not a sbort.
Where did you tap power from for the balos?
I tapped into the turn signals for the halos and I have a wire with a fuse running from the bluetooth controller to the bolt that connected to the fuse box.
 

theRedStorm

forum member
Joined
Aug 30, 2015
Posts
149
Reaction score
21
I had a bad alternator and my car did the same thing. It ran on the battery for about 2 hours and then just died. The battery was healthy so after sitting for 10 minutes it would start and run again for about 10 minutes and then die again. Actually did this several times. There is an amp hour rating for these batteries.
I recently replaced my alternator (stock that had a failing regulator) with a 2009/2010 denso Remy rebuilt one from Rockauto. Could it be I got a defective one?
I am still using the stock power wire with no fuse. I don't know if I should have upgraded my power wire when I upgraded to the new alternator. Perhaps the stock 2005 wire can't handle the voltage a newer 2009/2010 alternator puts out and maybe I should upgrade that?


Thank you all for the help!! I truly appreciate it :yeahrightangel:
 

LarryJM

Resident Fuktard
Joined
Jul 15, 2018
Posts
1,008
Reaction score
151
I recently replaced my alternator (stock that had a failing regulator) with a 2009/2010 denso Remy rebuilt one from Rockauto. Could it be I got a defective one?
I am still using the stock power wire with no fuse. I don't know if I should have upgraded my power wire when I upgraded to the new alternator. Perhaps the stock 2005 wire can't handle the voltage a newer 2009/2010 alternator puts out and maybe I should upgrade that?


Thank you all for the help!! I truly appreciate it :yeahrightangel:

On Roadkill, they purchased a new alternator and it was defective. Just wanted to point that out.
 

theRedStorm

forum member
Joined
Aug 30, 2015
Posts
149
Reaction score
21
I did find this on the internet. I do believe the new alternator was a 3g upgrade Screenshot_20210412-052024_Firefox Focus.jpg
 

theRedStorm

forum member
Joined
Aug 30, 2015
Posts
149
Reaction score
21
Giving an update.


I installed new power and ground cables. Still didn't fix it. I was going through my fuseboxes and saw that some of SJB parts had corrosion on them. I am almost 100% sure it has to be this box. That would explain why I can get the turn back on after removing the ground cable for 5 mins or so after it completely dies. Power cable upgrade wasnt the issue tho
 

stkjock

---- Madmin ----
Staff member
Administrator
Super Moderator
S197 Team Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Posts
40,223
Reaction score
3,138
Location
Long Island NY
check for water intrusion, notorious issue with these cars, front cowl drains get clogged.
 

theRedStorm

forum member
Joined
Aug 30, 2015
Posts
149
Reaction score
21
20210421_151248.jpg20210421_151243.jpg20210421_135455.jpgi cleaned all the contacts and made sure no more corrosion was left. It wasn't as much as expected but definitely was there. Fingers crossed this fixes it
 

theRedStorm

forum member
Joined
Aug 30, 2015
Posts
149
Reaction score
21
I added a 2 gauge power wire + dedicated ground incase of any power wire problems. 20210420_172609.jpg
 

theRedStorm

forum member
Joined
Aug 30, 2015
Posts
149
Reaction score
21
Now I'm blown. So after cleaning contacts and connecting everything back up, I have Zero power. Nothing works at all. Volt meter reads 12.9V and 4 amps drawing. No short either.
Could it be my SJB could have gone bad? I'm lost :angry1:

Any way to test the SJB?
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Support us!

Support Us - Become A Supporting Member Today!

Click Here For Details

Sponsor Links

Banner image
Back
Top