**UPDATED**
I'll start from the top:
A few days after Christmas, the starter gears seize on their shaft. New starter time - it's takes me a little over a week to get around to fixing it and once the new starter was in, everything was hunky-dory. (Car didn't want to idle at first, but after a 15 minute test drive, everything was fine.)
Fast forward to this past Friday night - heading home from work, the speedometer goes disco on me...and finally parks itself on zero. Other than that, the car isn't any crappier than normal.
Saturday morning, the wife and I hop in the car to go run an errand and the battery is dead. Battery is less than a year old, nothing was left on... Maybe the starter took out the battery...(?) I get a jump, head off to work with jumper cables nestled all snug in the trunk.
I park the car and take the key out. Out of nowhere, I hear the power antenna motor running and then the heater starts blowing at full blast with the KEY IN MY POCKET!?!?! That explains the dead battery....but what the hell...??? So I turned the HVAC to OFF and that seemed to save enough juice for the car to start on its own battery power after 8 hours.
Basically, this power glitch happens every few seconds - the antenna motor runs, the back lights for the window motors come on and the HVAC will run. The power windows will not open or close, the radio does not come on, nor do any lights come on. The CEL sort of fades in and out while the car is parked with the key out of the ignition.
Oh, I forgot to mention that after the battery went dead, while driving to work yesterday, the CEL came on; but I wont have a chance to get it scanned until tomorrow.
It is worth mentioning that on Friday night (the night the speedo exited stage left), we had a series of thunderstorms blow in and the temperature dropped into the 20's - down about 30*.
I don't know which, if any, of these issues are related. Obviously I need to get that code scanned, but I'm really at a loss here.
**UPDATE**
After a trip to Autozone, it seems there was an error and the code scanner wouldn't recieve a signal from my car.
With the car parked in my garage, and the key in my pocket, I was determined to locate the whirring sound. I confirmed that the fuel pump seems to remain on in unpredictable intervals after the car is turned off and the key removed from the ignition. This was confirmed by removing the fuse.
The car is exhibiting idling problems. They are intermittent and after driving for a few minutes, the car appears to idle normally.
So...I hate my car <-----------------------------------------> this much right now...
And I'm still pretty clueless as to where to go from here.
**End UPDATE**
I'll start from the top:
A few days after Christmas, the starter gears seize on their shaft. New starter time - it's takes me a little over a week to get around to fixing it and once the new starter was in, everything was hunky-dory. (Car didn't want to idle at first, but after a 15 minute test drive, everything was fine.)
Fast forward to this past Friday night - heading home from work, the speedometer goes disco on me...and finally parks itself on zero. Other than that, the car isn't any crappier than normal.
Saturday morning, the wife and I hop in the car to go run an errand and the battery is dead. Battery is less than a year old, nothing was left on... Maybe the starter took out the battery...(?) I get a jump, head off to work with jumper cables nestled all snug in the trunk.
I park the car and take the key out. Out of nowhere, I hear the power antenna motor running and then the heater starts blowing at full blast with the KEY IN MY POCKET!?!?! That explains the dead battery....but what the hell...??? So I turned the HVAC to OFF and that seemed to save enough juice for the car to start on its own battery power after 8 hours.
Basically, this power glitch happens every few seconds - the antenna motor runs, the back lights for the window motors come on and the HVAC will run. The power windows will not open or close, the radio does not come on, nor do any lights come on. The CEL sort of fades in and out while the car is parked with the key out of the ignition.
Oh, I forgot to mention that after the battery went dead, while driving to work yesterday, the CEL came on; but I wont have a chance to get it scanned until tomorrow.
It is worth mentioning that on Friday night (the night the speedo exited stage left), we had a series of thunderstorms blow in and the temperature dropped into the 20's - down about 30*.
I don't know which, if any, of these issues are related. Obviously I need to get that code scanned, but I'm really at a loss here.
**UPDATE**
After a trip to Autozone, it seems there was an error and the code scanner wouldn't recieve a signal from my car.
With the car parked in my garage, and the key in my pocket, I was determined to locate the whirring sound. I confirmed that the fuel pump seems to remain on in unpredictable intervals after the car is turned off and the key removed from the ignition. This was confirmed by removing the fuse.
The car is exhibiting idling problems. They are intermittent and after driving for a few minutes, the car appears to idle normally.
So...I hate my car <-----------------------------------------> this much right now...
And I'm still pretty clueless as to where to go from here.
**End UPDATE**
Last edited:
Charge the battery well before doing any of those tests. If both test well, then I would check for a short in the wiring. Start with the VSS wiring to PCM and PCM to speedometer. Maybe something flaked off and is touching a constant hot line (cigar light, PCM power, horn, hazard lights, brake lights, etc.)