Guys, I am having a SERIOUS problem now with my newly bought 94 SC300. I haven't even had this car for 2 weeks yet and it seems like my car is REALLY struggling to power things in my car. When I hit the brakes the foglights and low/high beam headlights flicker when they are on. (I have stock halogen bulbs, not HIDs. Yet.) Anyway, I was just getting out of my car and was going to lock it by pushing the power lock button on the driver's side door panel before getting out (since keyless entry remote didn't come with the car) and the power locks locked half way and got stuck and the interior lights dimmed REALLY bad. And when I started my car earlier to go home, it wouldn't start at all when I turned the key to start it, all the lights just dimmed ALMOST to complete blackness and the door chimes sounded VERY low in volume compared to usual. So then I took the key out and tried starting it again and it finally started. The guy that sold me the car told me the car's foglights/low/high headlights flicker from time to time at night when you have them on and hit the brakes. But, this problem seems like it is becoming progressively worse each day that passes. Also, when I hit the brakes the radio shuts off and then turns back on in less than a second. There is like a break in the radio signal/factory headunit power for a split second when the brake lights come on after the brake has been pushed. The guy that sold me the car said he just put a new battery in it before he sold it to me. I'm thinking this may be a bad/loose ground somewhere on the car but I don't know for sure. I know these cars are notorious for the dimming, but not as bad as what I am experiencing. Does anyone know what this could be? This is really confusing me lol.

 

As all the other threads on this indicate (I found 56 searching dimming, bad ground, etc), repair your grounds and check your main hot leads while you are at it.

 

Sounds like bad connections/grounds. I had that problem too, would have to wiggle the wires from time to time to get things working again. (this was my old sc, not the new one)

 

Have you checked how well the alternator is charging??? you might wanna start with a load test.

 

sounds like bad alternator or ground looks like you need to bust out the multimeter and start eliminating things it might be

 

Yeah, I think I am going to get my battery and alternator tested at the local AutoZone to see if my battery and alternator are good or not and then I can go from there. I'll let you guys know what happens.

 

Okay, so I JUST went to AutoZone like 5 mins ago and I got there and the guy that worked there said he would test my battery but not my alternator since he "didn't know how to test alternators". So he tested my battery and the result was that it's a good battery with no problems. He told me in order to test my alternator to see if that's whats bad and making my lights dim and flicker when I hit the brakes and stuff is to disconnect the ground terminal from the battery WITH THE CAR RUNNING. He said if you disconnect the ground battery terminal when the motor is running and the car keeps running then your alternator is good. For some reason, I think that this guy was retarded or something because if you remove the ground battery terminal WHILE THE CAR IS RUNNING, you would probably get shocked and mess something up in the process. Am I right or was this guy full of *****? I've never heard of doing such a thing.

Also, my battery terminals look a little dirty with that white battery acid residue stuff but I don't see why that would be a problem if the battery test came back good. Any help?

 

Please go back and tell the ignorant *** you have a DENSO alternator and you don't want to blow your regulator by spiking it and to please go bury his head in a bag of chlorine.

 

LOL! I knew what that guy was saying didn't sound right! That just sounded like a stupid thing to do, not to mention it doesn't sound very safe lol.