Battery Light after Shut Off

[Joey GT-R]

So I'm driving to church this morning and everything seems alright. I turn the car off and the battery light comes on. I turn it back on, then off again, to the same result. I even disconnect the radio faceplate, turn my lights off and on. I let the light stay on since church is only an hour long. Car starts up strong and I drive to a restaurant and leave with the light still on in the dash. While driving the light goes off. So I'm assuming the alternator is working and keeping the battery charged. Is there a common culprit to this issue? I'm thinking it's possibly the crappy autozone ignition switch or maybe the crappy main relay that I just replaced about 4 months ago.

[sonikaccord]

That sounds like a bad ground or an intermittent connection some where. Did you check your battery's negative terminal?

[Joey GT-R]

That sounds like a bad ground or an intermittent connection some where. Did you check your battery's negative terminal?

BOOM.

Before I read this post I decided I would disconnect the battery since obviously it would be dead overnight. The ground to the negative terminal was barely hanging on, and when I slightly touched it, it just completely disconnected. I have school tomorrow, and I hate working in the dark, so I'll fix it up tomorrow. Hopefully that does the trick.

[Joey GT-R]

UPDATE

I attempted to reconnect the ground to the terminal, and while I was at it had Advance Auto recharge the battery. The light is still on with the ignition off. I had to get to my football practice, so I figured I'd play with it some more once I got there. I drove 10-15 minutes and the car sputters and dies. The car cranks but won't turn over. The headlights and taillights are bright as well as the cluster. Could I have run out of gas? The gas light never came on though.


So I manage to get a friend to take me to get a gas can. I put 2 gallons in. The car died going up a hill; and it wouldn't start standing still. I'm thinking the gas is all on at the bottom leaning away from the pump. So I have my friend push me up the hill that I died on earlier, and as I go down the hill I pop the clutch, and the car starts, but immediately dies. But the strange thing is the lights and cluster that were bright earlier suddenly died. I couldn't get the car to turn over again even with jumper cables. Maybe I now I have two or more issues. The first with the battery, and the second with needing more gas. I may put two more gallons in it tomorrow to see but I doubt it since it started up after popping the clutch.

Something to note, when the car first died, with just the accessories running I had no battery light on in the cluster. But normally when I revert from ignition to accessories the battery light comes on. Maybe this is a clue?

[sonikaccord]

Gremlins dude...

I'm thinking maybe a wire burnt somewhere from the increased contact resistance of that loose ground...worst case of course.

Can you get a multimeter? I can point some stuff out on the wiring diagram that you should check when I get the time.

[Qiko]

Electrical issues are the worst here are some other ideas.

how about your fuses under the dash and under the hood? They ok?

I believe the other end of the negative ground connects to the transmission(not sure). But is the other end of the negative cable secure too?

Check out this vid:
Diagnosing Alternator Problems:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTGz0PKIl84

How to Test For Parasitic Battery Drain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdIKNnwEjIs

How is the positive wire? does it look ok? burnt?

[Joey GT-R]

I took it to my buddies shop and he rewired the negative cable along with a brand new terminal. It still won't turn over, just keeps spinning. He also put in an additional 5 gallons of fuel, so there's about 6.5 gallons of fuel in the tank. He has a multimeter, and tomorrow we'll test the distributor. I've never run out of gas before, so I'm hoping the fuel pump didn't go out, as I've heard that can happen.(Although that's cheaper than a distributor). He says more than likely the float that sits in the tank could have gone bad over time hence why the gas light no longer comes on. I'll check fuses as well tomorrow.

[evil_demon_01]

Check the basics first.

If it doesn't start it wont have on e of the following:
Fuel
Spark
Compression
Or the timing is out

http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showpost...05&postcount=1

[Joey GT-R]

My friend and I have finally narrowed it down....the distributor. The distributor is not getting power. But after tugging on a few wires, a particular blue wire, the cooling fans came on. So we're thinking it's a wiring issue. I wasn't there when he found the wire, but I'm thinking it's the wire from the previously existing external coil, since the current distributor is an internal coil. My current harness is spaghetti, so I'm thinking now is the time to possibly get another one and perhaps this will straighten out the issue. I don't want to go hunting for wires since I'm not well versed in wiring plus paying a shop to do it would easily get into a couple hundred bucks I bet. But before I go through all that trouble, are there any wires that should be easily identifiable that could be the issue?

[cb7 calling]

So I read this a few days ago. I was thinking sounds like ignition switch. I was hoping for more post with something else to go on before I commented....I still say ignition switch. Like the key barrel itself or wires coming from there to the car. I believe some or all of the wires aren't getting the signal the key is in the off position. This morning I remembered you had a thread about your car running when the key was in the off position. I just re-read it. I guess you can rule out the parts you replaced but it sounds like the same problem to me.
Can you hear the fuel pump when you put the key to the run position?
Have you tried jiggling the crap out of the key?
Have you tried slowly moving the key through the positions and looking for the corresponding dash lights and accessories to come on?
When the car is off and the battery light is on will your turn signals work? They normally only come on in the run position.
Maybe it's wires but I think both of the problems are related.

[Joey GT-R]

All fuel components have checked out good. I haven't tried the turn signals idea but I'll get back to you on that. We were thinking ignition switch as well, but when this wire thing came up our thinking was if this wasn't the problem altogether, it was part of it. That will be our second issue to tackle though.

Did I ever resolve my old thread? I need to check that. Just in case anyone uses it for reference in the future.

[Joey GT-R]

FINAL SOLUTION


It turns out I had two problems. The distributor had gone out, so that was the reason why the car would not turn over. I replaced that, but once the car shut off, the battery light came on.

After battery testing at Autozone they told me the battery was bad, so I went to Advance to warranty it out. Their tester turned out good however. After doing a charging test it was determined that the alternator had an open diode and wasn't charging the battery. Once the engine turned off, the diode continued to drain the battery which kept the battery light on after the key was out.


Just in case someone should have the same problem in the future.

[RyanD]

Well hell yea joey. Good to know and good info. Im committing this to memory.