Battery Sparking, Crackling and Hot!
 

Hey everyone. So over the weekend I installed the S/C kit from ZZP, got the computer back, and was hooking up the battery to start her up. I put the positive cable on first and then the negative and as soon as the negative touched the terminal it started sparking and melting the terminal.

I immediately disconnected and began to check every single connection, including the grounds, the alternator to starter connection, EVERYTHING. I went to try it again and the exact same thing happened.

Today a buddy and I were trying to figure out if there was a short.... This is where it gets weird!

We have disconnected the entire fuse box after removing each individual fuse to find the short. I completely pulled out the alternator and disconnected everything on the starter. When we went to check for a short (I have the little light with the needle deal and put the ground terminal on and connect the clip to the + cable and touch the + terminal) the light still comes on! We pulled the 120 amp fuse right off the battery and it still does the same thing!!!

Please, can someone, anybody shed some light on the situation?! This is my daily driver and is obviously very important to get running soon. I am not the most electrical savvy, but if you point me in the right direction I'd be so very grateful.... Any thoughts????? :confused::cry:

Check where you grounds are placed..

Everything is completely disconnected from under the hood. Fuse box, grounds, everything. Still when I try to hook the cables back up, starts sparking and crackling while melting the terminals on the battery...

your battery is in backwards and you are putting the + to the ground cable

Definitely not. Made absolute sure that was not the case here and I assure you it is not hooked up backwards.

Keep the ideas comin though...

could you have mixed up the large ground cable that bolts to the trans by the starter and the B+ cable(S) to the fuse box?

No, I never removed any of that when putting in the S/C kit. Now I have them removed. I have everything under the hood disconnected. The fuse box is entirely disconnected as well as my alt and starter.

Sounds like possibly something is back feeding

So today we were checking continuity between the battery to the fuse box, that was good. Checked continuity from batt to starter, then alternator and both times we were good on continuity.

So for craps and giggles we decided to hook the battery back up...No arcing issues!!! So we started installing everything as if whatever it was worked itself out. When we went to hook the battery back up, again, sparking crackling and all that.

What gets me is I take the short circuit tester and the light still lights up, meaning that there IS a short.... Could it be a bad positive wiring harness? Like the whole thing??? Need as much help as I can get on this one... Oh and no fuses are blown.

Lastly, when we disconnect the two grounds that are bolted to the side of the block (one from the wiring harness, the other to the frame) we don't have the arcing issue AND all my interior stuff comes on! From the radio to the door chimes and trunk lights.... :wtf: :confused:

Start taking things you think it may be off and keep connecting the battery. Can't really tell what it is

That's exactly what I ended up doing....


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cob...5f088c811.jpeg

The little piece of metal on the starter solenoid cable, the little piece of metal at the end of that rubber boot was touching the now metal intake manifold!

What threw us off is we disconnected it twice! Checked it and everything! It wasn't until taking off the intake manifold we were able to see that just a piece of that hot wire to the starter solenoid was shorting out on the manifold!!!!
Took apart the entire car to find just that little piece! Good advice no_ss!!

:twothumbs

Glad you found it! Now you can have fun with your car lol

So im pretty sure i fried my computer... ZZP has been hardly any help. Its like theyre givin me the cold shoulder after ive already spent a few thousand dollars on their parts. First they were cool, now theyre cold.

After getting the short issue solved, got everything assembled, tightened, triple and quadruple checked every part, connection, vaccuum line, you name it it was checked. And the car fell flat on its face. Long story short, pretty sure the computer is fried. It keeps popping up P1682, which is Driver 5 Line 2, replaced the Starter Ignition Switch, checked the wires for any shorts, checked for loos connections and this code keeps popping up.

There was a post from a trifecta dealer that was having the same issue. Anyways, followed what they did on their post and determined i have a bad ECM/PCM. So i ordered a new ECM on eBay and the seller is not sure if its for a 2.2 or a 2.4? Emailed ZZP about it and they said that they dont guarantee it will work and to find a different ECM or else will have to pay for another tune on another ECM. What are your guys' thoughts, will a 2.2l ECU be ok if flashed with 2.4l factory settings and then tuned?????

You should get same year ECU or at least try to get same year. But get one that matches your car as an l61 or a LAP engine.

Didn't see you have an LE5, make sure it's a computer for the LE5.

Yes I know mine is an LE5. What I did was just match part numbers and service numbers on my computer with the one I just purchased. It wasn't until after the fact that I thought I would check if the part number and service number were the same for the 2.2 and 2.4, which they are! The listing didn't say what liter engine it was to, just the part number.