Car won't start, batt has 12 V, fuses have power, but engine won't turn over, HELP!!!

[Harbin1]

My wife was going to take my car this morning and she said it started right up and then died suddenly after she pressed the gas. It completely lost electrical power. No power brakes, no headlights, no nothing!

I checked the battery and it's got over 12 volts. I've also got a fuse block for my amplifiers which has a digital readout and it says 12.2 volts also. So the battery has power it just can't get it to the rest of the car for some reason.

I checked all the fuses and none of them are blown. I tried starting the car with my extra set of keys but I still got nothing. The keyless remote will not unlock the doors. I've inspected as many of the wires under the hood as I can see and none look problematic.

I'm going to disconnect the positive terminal and let it sit for a while and see if a reset does anything.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I really don't want to take the car to a shop. [img]graemlins/bowdown.gif[/img]

[Fredless]

Does the security light come on when you turn the key on the guage cluster?

Same thing happened to my car and what happens is there is wires that connect your ignition lock cylinder to your PCM that tell the PCM if you have the right VATS key in there. Over time, these wires break. Whats happening is the PCM is shutting off the fuel pump and starter because it thinks you're trying to steal the car.

Dealer replaced this for me, around 350 bucks for new lock cylinder and labor + new keys.

[Harbin1]

The gauge cluster doesn't even light up. Some of the fuses show no continuity with the ign off, I can't remember which ones under the hood they were. But when I turned the ignition to "ON" the fuses would read .6~ volts so I'm thinking the ign lock cyl is functioning.

Reseting the ECU by disconnecting the battery has helped either.

[Fred]

Your battery might not be making good contact with your wires. try cleaning them off, they might have a lot of acid built up on them.

[Rabid Dog]

I had the same problem, and my little 10 amp fuse for my instrument cluster was blown. As soon as I replaced it, the car fired right up.

The only odd thing was no instrument lights, or gauges working. ;)

[majeskyb]

Originally posted by Rabid Dog:
I had the same problem, and my little 10 amp fuse for my instrument cluster was blown. As soon as I replaced it, the car fired right up.

The only odd thing was no instrument lights, or gauges working. ;)

x2. That happened to me as well. Had to get a friend to drive me to the store to pick one up. Something else you can try is a load test on the battery. Mine was bad in the rx7 last week, even though it showed 12.6 volts. The guy did a load test set at 350 amps, and the voltage dropped down to less than 8 volts

[dafirebird]

Well, I don't know much about the key problem that Fredless is referring to, but when a battery goes bad, you may still get a reading of 12+ volts. That means nothing; The starter needs a lot of "current", not "volts" to start. The first thing is like Fred mentioned, to clean the battery terminals & cables; and maybe have the battery load tested at your local parts store. Maybe a new battery is all you need.....

[kahouna23]

I had a friend of mine who had a similar problem. Battery checked out fine, and even with a new battery the problem still existed. It eventually turned out to be a bad chassis ground. The main ground coming off the battery terminal that attatches to the chassis. It was all corroded and loose. Check that if you haven't already.

[Salvader]

Hope car is up by now with the other guyst tips.
If not: What happened to me was that the cable from the alternator to the battery (or is it the other way) was disconnected in the terminal and not making good contact so wat i did was take out tape and discover the terminal was not united with the cable, grimp another terminal to that cable and everithing went fine.
hope this helps.