Lost electricity briefly on highway last night
 

I was sitting at a busy stoplight last night on my way home and my car stalled out. I went to restart and with a click; I lost all power. The light turned green and there I was on the Pacific Coast Highway, at night, in a black car, with no lights during, rush hour, dead.:eek:

Here's a little back story. She's done this to me before. A year and a half ago it did the exact same thing a lot in fact. I would drive for five minutes or so and there it'd go again. So I replaced the battery with an Optima Red Top. It happened once more the day I got that and I finally diagnosed it as the negative terminal connector. I replaced that and hadn't had a problem since.

Meanwhile, back on the highway... I jumped out once the light turned red again and performed some percussive maintenance on the negative terminal and everything came to life. I ran back into the car and went to fire it up but, "click" and I'm dead again. No time to get out before the cars start screaming past at 55mph, with more than one of them actually locking up the brakes behind me I stayed it out for another light cycle. Next red light it was some more refined percussive maintenance and jiggling in the dark and the fans and lights popped back on. I continued my fiddling with it until the last moment and as the light turned green again I jumped back in and she roared to life. I drove in the right lane with my eye on turnoffs the rest of the way home, trying not to come to a complete stop for the remaining traffic lights.

My buddy is coming over in his BRAT, and he'll follow me to our mechanic friend's house to look at it. I'm thinking I should check out the ground cables coming from the battery. Maybe by futzing with the terminal I'm tugging the other end to get my connection. I really don't know too much, but we'll test current all around there and see what we can find. There's no aftermarket security, and aside from the battery and connector it's still mostly stock in front of the firewall.

Maybe I should just do the alternator wiring upgrade, a maniac alt, and some other replaced cabling/connectors just to eliminate the problem with authority.

Re: Lost electricity briefly on highway last night
 

I had a similar incident a few days after my 6-speed swap. Turned out the far left ECU plug hadn't gotten plugged in quite all the way to where it clicked and it had worked its way loose (probably with some help from my still clumsy left foot).

Re: Lost electricity briefly on highway last night
 

Im not sure what percussive maintenance means in this instance but if I were in your shoes when this happened everyone within a belch n a holler would know every variation of F.

Its your cable connection im pretty sure, this has happened to me on several cars and a good terminal clean and tighten took care of it. Sometimes on aftermarket cables they have an air gap on the top or bottom after theyre installed on the battery post, and after some time they form a tiny layer of corrosion even where there is no gap.... which for a mere 12V means a crappy connection that the current cant jump across. Then when you turn the key, zap, what little connection you had left is immediately oxidized from the current jump and then nothing else can get through.

Re: Lost electricity briefly on highway last night
 

Percussive maintenance means to hit it :lol:

Get some new + and - terminals because they are cheap, clean off your posts with a wire brush or sandpaper, smear a little dielectric grease on the posts, and then spray this stuff on after tightening down your terminals:

http://www.usahardware.com/inet/shop.../crc/05046.htm

Various people make it, but it seals the terminal/post connection to keep the elements out. As a bonus, it makes great adhesive for the vented and solid shims used on factory brake pad sets :lol:.

Re: Lost electricity briefly on highway last night
 

OK, so my BRAT buddy bailed on me and I tried to go it alone. I stopped at a gas station and it died again. It took two tries to get running, so I crippled it back home rather than risk city traffic.

I checked out the terminal pretty well. The post and connector are clean as a whistle. The thick gauge wire that's crimped into the connector is kind of green with corrosion though. I checked the chassis ground and it's good, so I suspect it is the main negative wire where it's crimped to the connector. I brushed off the corroded wires before reassembling them and got them nice and shiny, then made sure that they were both securely clamped to the black metal of the connector. I haven't had any trouble yet, with about five restarts. I still don't trust it.

I took some pictures with my phone. They suck.

Here's the negative cable. Question; I've had to cut a notch in my battery tray to get to the terminal. Is this shorter than stock? I didn't need the notch before the Optima so I figured it was just a smaller battery, but this is the wire I'm suspicious of.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_0QWEIXqBk7I/TT...2/IMG_0356.JPG

The connector.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_0QWEIXqBk7I/TT...0/IMG_0357.JPG

Another angle.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_0QWEIXqBk7I/TT...0/IMG_0358.JPG

And a soft shot of the terminal and connector reassembled.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_0QWEIXqBk7I/TT...0/IMG_0359.JPG

Re: Lost electricity briefly on highway last night
 

The connector is ok, but the wires have a lot of corrosion in them. You need to give the copper ends a good wash with hot water, to dissolve the oxidation. Then spray something like, North Ursalia suggested to slow its return.

Harvey.

Re: Lost electricity briefly on highway last night
 

Maybe you should spend more than $10 for daily transportation.:lol:;)

So from your first post I gather that you replaced the battery and cable after it did it the first time right? Was that battery smaller too or not? Is it possible you're breaking off the terminal post inside the battery or is it nice and tight? I remember reading that Red Tops have a habit of breaking their posts (I'd suspect it is less related to the battery itself and more related to improper tying down on installation). Your cable does seem a bit tarnished a little soda usually does the trick on that, then grease it up with some electrical grease. How are your fusable links? Finally, check your wiring going to the alternator, is it possible you have a short there which is grounding?

Re: Lost electricity briefly on highway last night
 

Which size of battery is it? Mine is a 34 or something.

Re: Lost electricity briefly on highway last night
 

I only spent $3200 three years ago, so by my logic I could be driving something 3x more reliable, but that'd only be half the fun.:p

Thanks for all the replies, folks. This morning's commute went off without a hitch, and after running around all weekend (trying to prompt repeat failure) I'm fairly certain that the issue has been resolved.

The battery that I replaced with the Red Top had the same footprint, but was maybe 1 1/2" -2" taller. The new(ish) Red Top has solid posts, and while the tiedown is a filthy corroded mess, the battery itself is in great condition. I checked the fuses and fusable link in the under-hood fuse box and it seems fine. I still intend to follow up with the alternator wiring upgrade and a new alt in the immediate future, but I was able to isolate the problem to the negative battery connection with reasonable certainty.

The pic of the cable is a "before" shot from when I first disconnected it. I gave it a little spit-shine and wipedown with a towel and it was nice and glossy when I reassembled. On the way home tonight I plan to stop for some dielectric grease and look into the spray suggested earlier, then give it another look.

Re: Lost electricity briefly on highway last night
 

I don't know if you are already doing this, but it is the corrosion between all the strands of wire down under the covering that you need to remove the corrosion from, not just the outside. Use the hot water and the Baking Soda that Ben said. That will neutralize the corrosion, then seal it up.:)

Harvey.

Re: Lost electricity briefly on highway last night
 

I didn't say baking soda, just plan soda (cola, pop, coke) does the trick pretty good) but of course baking soda is a bit better. I'd have to run to the store or take it out of the frig to get baking soda.

Re: Lost electricity briefly on highway last night
 

This should do it.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_0QWEIXqBk7I/TU...2/IMG_0377.JPG

Cleaned, greased, then sealed. Thanks again for all the advice.