Ok guys, I have yet ANOTHER problem. When driving, especially at night while the headlamps are on, if I brake hard or put on either of my blinkers it causes my dash lights to dim and my radio to lose power, my clock on the dash will reset to 1:00, sometimes my battery light will flash on briefly then go off, same with the abs light. It wasn't a huge deal at first when this problem started last week or so but today the car stalled on me twice, just basically lost all electric power for a second after I came to a stop at a red light. I put the car in park and tried to restart it and it started right up no problem. I had the charging system, alternator, and battery tested at SEARS and all is fine. I've cleaned off all corrosion and sprayed an anti-corrosion spray on the battery posts. The battery is held down securely so it's not jostling all over the place. I even took it to an auto-electric specialist who said they couldn't find anything wrong (of course the car didn't act up when I took it in to be looked at). I'm stumped, and I don't wanna pay the "stealer" (aka dealer) $200 to troubleshoot only to tell me it's a 25 cent wire that's burned out. Anyone else ever experience this problem and if so how can I fix it? Any help would be appreciated amigos.

 

and again.............. GROUND WIRE.

start at the block, then go to the body grounds.

 

O.L.T., I really appreciate your input. I'll check it out tonite after I get off work. Man this thing has been a major PITA lately, causing me to sorry and stress it was something really MAJOR. My buddy is a really good mechanic so I'll drive over to his house tonite and we'll see what we can see. have you experienced this problem before? I notice it happens most often when I'm driving at night with the headlights on and I attempt to use my blinker(s). I seriously hope that's the problem. Thanx again Big O, you may have just given me back peace when I sleep at night.

 

One thing about electricity is that it is predictable.

If you are experiencing a loss of Voltage, and are sure the source (battery, alt) are in good standing, the only thing left are the connections.

It only takes 3 things to produce voltage. A source, a path, and a load. your load works, and your source works. kinda points to the path pretty easily now, eh? Ground connections on the block itself (the OTHER end of the cable) are exposed to lot's of elements that corrode and destroy the "path"

 

Keep the info flowing Brian, I'm soaking it up like a sponge. I won't pretend to be very knowledgeable about cars but I'm learning. The electricity concept is very interesting, simpler than I thought. All those cartoons I used to watch showing characters get electrocuted made me stay clear of stuff like that! j/k. Hopefully the problem does lie in the connection(s) and that can be solved easily and for a small amount of money. Would you suggest just fixing the possibly lose connection or replacing it altogether? I'm also interested in getting my cluster needles done by you one of these days but wanted to know the turnaround time. I may take a vacation while the work is being done so I'm not driving around without the cluster even though I've read it's possible. Also, could you please explain what you mean by "waterfall" effect? I was reading a thread about how some ebay jerk stole your idea and there was some drama behind it, hope that all worked out for you. Thanks again Brian, have a good one.

 

Steel wool and vasaline.

sand the connections with steel wool and cover them in vasaline AFTER you remate the connection to avoid rust.

 

cool deal, I'll do that. Thinking about taking a day off tomorrow and going through the engine bay with a fine toothed comb. While we're in there we might as well check for anything else suspicious.

 

does anybody have a schematic of the body grounds for a 92 sc400?

blowing fuses under the hood everytime.. no radio

I was gonna try the ground but have yet to locate all of them? any sugg

 

yea i will agree with OLT i took an electronics class and its easy to spot out bad grounds... you can make ur own ground wire kit if ud like and try that out sould help... had a car once that had the ground fromt he battrery to the chassis disconnected and everytime the car was on and he stepped ont eh brakes the car died... found it was the ground. GL

 

Hey All..... been reading the posts. I dont really know what going on either w my 92SC400. having problems on starting my SC @ cold weather.. has any1 gotten that problem? now that its warm its starts ok but hesitating. I know it's not the starter it cranks... alternator is good... no prob after driving it around. I removed all 3 fuses for alarm thinking that was the problem... so NOW I just dont know... dont want to replace ALT/STARTER/BATTERY yet! any suggestions? Thanx

 

mike...i have the exact same problem you have mentioned...the clock going from 9:00 to 1:00, radio shutting on and off when driving, headlights/blinker/dash lights flickering when stepping on the brake or blinking to switch lanes. this is driving me crazy...i took it to my mechanic and he said its the CD deck i had installed but it cant be since i never had that problem a yr after i had it installed. find out the cause of the problem?

 

Yeah actually, I bought a new battery and cleaned the negative ground from the battery. That solved the issue for me.

I'd say to start by cleaning the grounds and see if that improves the situation, but if your battery is old as hell then changing it out will help as well. Hope this helps.

 

I had to read this a few times for it to sink in!!!!

 

Haha! Mark, when I got the message saying someone had posted in this oldazz thread and I went back to read it I laughed at that part myself. (It should have said "these" cars )

I moved from a modded 240sx to my SC (several millenia ago) so you could say I knew a lil sumthin' sumthin'