So for the past couple weeks my car has been acting weird. Not sure what it is, but I'm thinking tune or HIDs...

Symptom

After I shut off my car, at random times my remote on my car won't unlock the car. It's as if the remote has died. I originally thought my battery in my key was dead. Nope not the key at all. In fact it's my car, it has died as if all power to the car was off. No nothing.

This has happened a few times.

The other times I thought it was the rain getting the wires wet from my HID installation. I re-arranged everything and it should be good, but still problems.

Today it was dry! No rain at all and my car did it. I was heading to my car for lunch and unlocked it using the remote and it unlocked. Sat in my car and shut the door and all the sudden everything turned completely off. Black as if it lost power. I tried starting it and nothing. No click nothing as if the car has been dead for years. No LED, no DIC nothing.

So I sat in it thinking, then all the sudden the car makes a click noise and my gauges start twitching.

It's got power again. I start up the car and it's as if nothing was wrong. The other times this has happened, I'd have to set the clock. This time the clock stayed right.

What I've done to the car before noticing the problem

• Installed HID fogs (don't recall it doing it with my retrofits)
• Adjusted Cat Warmup mode
• Adjusted launch control
• Switched Tuned ECU with factory ECU
• Switched Factory ECU with Tuned ECU
• Adjusted driver side wire harness ground wire to lower metal bracket on frame of car so I could tuck wires better for rain protection.

I think thats it. Any ideas?

PS.

When this happens, I try to start my car and it keeps turning. Like it's not turning over. I have to turn off the key and try again and it starts right up.

 

Theres one thing you forgot to do. Take your car to your local Autozone Pepboys...etc. and get the battery checked. It might barely be holding a charge. new battery should fix your problems should the volt check show your battery is dead.


EDIT: Just to let you know my battery was basically dead since I bought the car new. The ACDelco battery sucks *****. I brought it in to autozone and it was barely even holding 60% of the charge it was suppose to hold. The chick behind the couter basically told it may/ or may not hold a charge again.. My car would mysteriously die when off for a day, or when waiting with the key in accessory mode for more than 20mins... the radio made wierd clicking noises, and all my electronics freaked out.

New battery (Duralast Gold) fixed the problem permanently.

 

dose it happen with both ecu's, factory and tuned?

 

only noticed it on tuned ecu

 

SO with leaving everything the same except swapping the ECU's, the problem arrises?

Car starts fine with stock ECU vs. tuned?

 

If that is true it sounds like a VATS issue with the tuned ECM.

 

How can I check this? I'm gonna go check the battery after work (1630 MST)

Is it something I can datalog and have Vince look at or is this a dealership check?

 

Sounds like there could be an issue with a bad ground.

 

yeah sounds like a battery terminal loose.

 

Okay, took it to autozone and they checked my battery from under the hood and it read "charge system and try again" so he assumed it was a weak battery and I needed a new one, but then suggested we check the actual battery "just in case"

We hooked it up and it read good battery, but as we checked it we noticed we could slide the terminals off, it wasn't tight at all. So he suggested I try tightening it up. So I went home and did just that. We'll see if that was the problem, seems to easy to be the problem. Problems in my life are never that easy.

This is where I moved the ground wire for my HID wiring harness, think this could be the cause?

I moved the ground wire here (tightened to the bolt) because i was able to tuck most of the wiring harness below the headlight bracket to keep the rain from reaching the cords.

 

THIS^^^^^!
Had it happen to me. The negative cable was very loose and even tightened, it doesn't grip very good with this design and can losen with vibrations. I used electrical tape over the top to secure it better. Also, make sure the battery strap is fastened.

 

check the tightness of you Positive post under the hood as well, if thats loose from the HID install you could have this issue, its happened to me

 

Im going with loose terminal or bad ground as well.

 

mike u might need a better ground for your HID's regardless because if there is paint over the metal it wont ground good, so either sand the paint off so it is a metal ground or move it somewhere else. atleast thats what i would do....but hope u get it figured out, my car is at the shop as well because it broke, and the dealership has no idea what the problem is, it is flagging like 3 CEL's and service traction, esc, and engine power reduced.....

 

If vats was casuing this it would be a more common problem then intermittent. I say grounds or terminal....... Or connection for a wire to ecu

 

No problems so far that I can tell since I tightened the battery terminals and positive in the fuse box. But the problem was an intermittent problem and I've only started my car twice so far. I'll update if things change, but I'm feeling good about this.

The battery terminals were really loose.

 

glad to hear u might have fixed it bro, my car is fixed as well, it was a problem with the BCM freaking out so they replaced it and boom she runs better than ever lol

 

very nice man. crazy the bcm who would have thought lol

 

lol i know huh? the whole time the dealership thought it was the Maf

 

The devil is always in the details.

 

Us CO guys are having all the luck, I have some Bad o2 sensors I think.

 

i dont think ur hid's would do any of this ha. its probobly ur battery being dead. the battery makes the car electronics and stuff work without the engine running and it also is what helps the car start. if the battery is dead as **** the car wont even try to start. the electronics wont work. anything that requires power would not work until the engine is started because then the power comes from the alternator. so my guess would be a battery. like someone said. go to autozone even tho i ******* hate there shitty parts but i think theyll check ur battery for free. so id do that.