05 LS - Electrical issues
05 LS - Electrical issues
Hey guys. Been having some odd electrical issues with the 'balt. I have no idea where to even start at this point, so I'm just going to give a little history below that may be relevant. Hopefully one of you can get me pointed in the right direction. I apologize ahead of time for the lengthy post, but I'll try to be as clear as possible and include everything.
Probably about 4 months ago I started having issues with my driver's side door. It refused to unlock with the passenger door, almost like the actuator was dying. It was intermittent at first, then became a daily occurrance. I was scraping up the money and time to look at it, but during that wait, it seemed to slowly go away. In probably the last 2 months, it has almost completely disappeared.
Somewhere in the middle of that, I had one time, and only once, where I tried to start the car and it rejected the key. When I turned the key, the whole car went dark and the security light flashed. I got advice from someone on here to try the spare key. First attempt with the spare was unsuccessful. I returned to try again almost an hour later and it fired right up with the key that I originally ran into the issue with (not the spare). Has not happened again since.
Now, in the last two weeks, on two separate occasions I have tried to start the car and the whole car goes dark. It's almost like the first time it happened, but now the car will not release the key after. Both times, I've turned the key back as far as the tumbler would allow (last click before key is in removable position). When the key reaches that position, if I let it sit for a minute, I can try again (still with no dash lights at all) and the car magically comes back to life. Thing is, when it comes back on, the computer has reset. The MPG meter zeroes out and all codes disappear (I had a P0420 because of my ZZP 300 cell cat).
The only things done to the car of any significance in the last year are:
ZZP Header/DP installed by an exhaust shop
Front O2 sensor was replaced by same shop
Again, P0420 code from high-flow cat
The car has the following mods in total:
Tsudo catback ~ 2 years ago
K&N SRI ~ 2 years ago
Custom stereo is installed (~3.5 years now) with 2 amps. I have checked the grounds
I HAVE NOT done the following
Unhooked the stereo completely
Tuned the car for any of the mods done
Car HAS NOT had the recall fix done yet if this might be ignition switch related somehow.
I'm stuck and have no idea if these things are related or if there's something that could explain all of it. Car doesn't seem to run oddly at all. It actually runs great and gets expected or slightly below MPG for the mods and way I drive.
Thanks in advance for any help and taking the time to read through all this. Let me know if there's any more info I can provide that might be of help.
Probably about 4 months ago I started having issues with my driver's side door. It refused to unlock with the passenger door, almost like the actuator was dying. It was intermittent at first, then became a daily occurrance. I was scraping up the money and time to look at it, but during that wait, it seemed to slowly go away. In probably the last 2 months, it has almost completely disappeared.
Somewhere in the middle of that, I had one time, and only once, where I tried to start the car and it rejected the key. When I turned the key, the whole car went dark and the security light flashed. I got advice from someone on here to try the spare key. First attempt with the spare was unsuccessful. I returned to try again almost an hour later and it fired right up with the key that I originally ran into the issue with (not the spare). Has not happened again since.
Now, in the last two weeks, on two separate occasions I have tried to start the car and the whole car goes dark. It's almost like the first time it happened, but now the car will not release the key after. Both times, I've turned the key back as far as the tumbler would allow (last click before key is in removable position). When the key reaches that position, if I let it sit for a minute, I can try again (still with no dash lights at all) and the car magically comes back to life. Thing is, when it comes back on, the computer has reset. The MPG meter zeroes out and all codes disappear (I had a P0420 because of my ZZP 300 cell cat).
The only things done to the car of any significance in the last year are:
ZZP Header/DP installed by an exhaust shop
Front O2 sensor was replaced by same shop
Again, P0420 code from high-flow cat
The car has the following mods in total:
Tsudo catback ~ 2 years ago
K&N SRI ~ 2 years ago
Custom stereo is installed (~3.5 years now) with 2 amps. I have checked the grounds
I HAVE NOT done the following
Unhooked the stereo completely
Tuned the car for any of the mods done
Car HAS NOT had the recall fix done yet if this might be ignition switch related somehow.
I'm stuck and have no idea if these things are related or if there's something that could explain all of it. Car doesn't seem to run oddly at all. It actually runs great and gets expected or slightly below MPG for the mods and way I drive.
Thanks in advance for any help and taking the time to read through all this. Let me know if there's any more info I can provide that might be of help.
They're good. I checked them when I checked the amp wiring. The amps are properly ring terminal mounted to the battery positive and negative too, not pinched in or anything like that.
Ok so I did some poking around in the car and semi have it figured out. TStone, you were on the right track.
While the battery posts and cabling is all good, the trunk floor is touching the negative terminal. My sub box bowed the stock cardboard'ish floor. Happened again tonight, only I lost power to everything this time and it stayed off. Went inside and got my spare key to get in the trunk. When I opened the trunk, all i did was bump the floor and power came back. I can easily repeat the power outages by just tapping on the trunk floor. Lifting the trunk floor also revealed a small blackened section on the underside of the floor. I'm not sure what exactly is happening because thoroughly insulating the exposed negative terminal doesn't seem to remedy the problem, only lifting the floor so that it's nowhere near the battery. I did jiggle the cables while the car was in accessory mode so it's not a loose cable that's causing it. Must be something touching somewhere it's not supposed to. Looks like I'll be building my solid floor trunk sooner than planned. Once I had checked the battery cables I wouldn't have thought about the floor being the issue without the accidental find.
Just throwing this out there for someone else that might run into it someday. I do have a larger than normal battery, a glass mat for the stereo, so that's a lot of the problem.
While the battery posts and cabling is all good, the trunk floor is touching the negative terminal. My sub box bowed the stock cardboard'ish floor. Happened again tonight, only I lost power to everything this time and it stayed off. Went inside and got my spare key to get in the trunk. When I opened the trunk, all i did was bump the floor and power came back. I can easily repeat the power outages by just tapping on the trunk floor. Lifting the trunk floor also revealed a small blackened section on the underside of the floor. I'm not sure what exactly is happening because thoroughly insulating the exposed negative terminal doesn't seem to remedy the problem, only lifting the floor so that it's nowhere near the battery. I did jiggle the cables while the car was in accessory mode so it's not a loose cable that's causing it. Must be something touching somewhere it's not supposed to. Looks like I'll be building my solid floor trunk sooner than planned. Once I had checked the battery cables I wouldn't have thought about the floor being the issue without the accidental find.
Just throwing this out there for someone else that might run into it someday. I do have a larger than normal battery, a glass mat for the stereo, so that's a lot of the problem.
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