Shorting out when starting

[James]

Sometimes when I turn the key ill get a click and ill lose power to everything. If I disconnected the negative and reconnect ill hear a rapid clicking then power comes back. Sometimes it will start sometimes the same thing happens and I have to rinse and repeat. SupWitDatShitMan

 

[EMX5636]

Usually a loose or bad battery cable/terminal will do that. Check them first.

 

[James]

That was my first guess so I replaced both positive and negative. Also tightened all the grounds and they were all good. Still does it. Probably 1 out of every 5 starts. I can't find any variables as to what causes it. Why it does it this time and not that time. Why sometimes I only have to reset the negative once and sometimes 5 times.

There's was a piece of metal attached to the positive that all the odd wires were attached to. I thought that was the problem and I took the piece if metal away and attached everything directly to the battery. Still no change

 

[galant651]

have you had your battery tested?

 

[James]

Battery was tested a month ago and is good. It's only three months old

 

[James]

Seems to have gotten drastically worse overnight. It did it5 drives in a row. But it only took one reset to fit each drive.

 

[transparentdsm]

three things i can think of.

1. your ecu is starting to go and the caps are beginning to leak.

2. you have a short in a wire itself. its something hard to find or even fix because of how detailed it is. you need a DMM and check the resistance between the wires. id start by checking the starter and battery wires along with the grounds, just because there tight doesn't mean there not corroded. if all is good there then its something from the steering column and you need to check all the wires that are associated with the ignition to the starter.

3. the ignition cylinder its self is messed up.

 

[James]

Caps were replaced when I had the EPROM socketed and chipped.

I was hoping it wasn't goin to be a goose hunt for a short. I think I'll disconnected the neg wire and chop it off to fresh wire and retighten it tomorrow. Maybe the ends just have a little corrosion on them

 

[James]

Sole things I should have probably had in the OP.

- battery is relocated back and down near the firewall. (Down and to the left of the throttle body).
- I keep power when I turn the key on. I don't lose power to everything till I try to start the car.

Now I think the shift cables might actually be hitting the negative cable back and forth an loosening it. Today I popped the good and the neg cable was off the battery.

 

[IncorpoRatedX]

Some things I have learned in the past:

Oxygen sensor wire can short in it's 'bracket' if the wiring gets worn and frayed, it happens often

wires in the doors can get pinched, open all the doors and then try it

alternator wire can short out on the bracket that retains it or other things in it's area.

You need to catch this problem with the least amount of key cycles, you can fry a number of relays and can burn up control boxes like the sunroof and seat belt control modules

Best of luck!

 

[James]

I don't know if what I did "fixed" it. But it starts up perfect now (since the last time I posted in this thread).

I think the problem had something to do with the Neg battery cable and the shift cables.

The last time this happened I popped the hood and the cable was completely off the battery. I found this extremely odd and the only moving part over there are the shift cables.... I moved the battery as far away from the shift cables as I could and fastened it there (my negligence not doing this a long time ago) and I also rotated the cable end so that even if the battery did move there was nothing on the negative battery cable end that could catch the shift cable and move it.