YACT: Electrical Problems....

[Danman]

Well, here's the scoop. I have a 2000 Pontiac Grand Am GT.


For the past couple weeks, I've been having some problems with the electrical system it looks like.

First thing that happened was the fuel pump relay was acting funny. I would start the car and it would automatically die. That happened for two days and then I was about to leave work and the car would not crank over. So I had to switch the AC relay with the fuel pump relay (same exact one) and it worked fine. I hit it on the ground and put the old fuel pump relay in the AC hole. The AC works fine.

Second, this problem is rather random. When I hit the brakes, everything blinks in the car. Sometimes it blinks so bad my speakers will cut off for less than a second. I will hear a pop or some weird noise like it has some capacidence built up. This is random, doesn't happen all of the time.

Now today, I was about to leave and the car just went crazy. My keyless entry would unlock the doors, but not lock them. It would pop the trunk too. When I unlocked the doors though, it was REALLY slow. When I tried to start it, NOTHING at all. The car would chime at me, but that was about it. I could see some lights on my dash but it was dim. I hooked up the jumper cables from my friends car to see if it was the battery, no go there. We let it sat for about 10 minutes to get a charge and I wasn't getting anything. I did hear a click every now and then when we tried to start it.

So I started playing with the fuses and relays box again. My girlfriend was sitting in the car watching if anything happen. She said that she saw some stuff lighting up when I was pulling some of the fuses and relays. After I took out the fuel pump relay for like the 5th time, I heard some humming noise coming from the battery. So I put everything back in, and it start up perfectly. I had the original fuel pump relay in there too, so I turned it off and put the new one I got. Started up also.


This really pisses me off. My car JUST got out of warranty too, so I'm not going to the dealer. I was thinking it could only be a couple things. One, it's the fvcking alternator. Two, it's a ground that broke maybe? I couldn't find anything that was unhooked when I was under the car. Three, it's my starter....but not likely. Four, it was the relay box? But I don't see how this makes any sense.

Please help.

 

[radioouman]

Do you have a volt meter? It might be worth checking the voltage on the battery considering that it is a 5 year old battery now.

However, it sounds like you have some electrical gremlins that will be difficult to diagnose.

My Sebring's remote entry receiver is intermittent, but so far that is the only electrical problem that I've had with that car.

 

[Danman]

Originally posted by: radioouman
Do you have a volt meter? It might be worth checking the voltage on the battery considering that it is a 5 year old battery now.

However, it sounds like you have some electrical gremlins that will be difficult to diagnose.

My Sebring's remote entry receiver is intermittent, but so far that is the only electrical problem that I've had with that car.

When I was having the first problem, I dropped a new battery in and on the first start it started right up and then it died. :laugh: So I decided to just return it cause I was short on cash. For some reason, I don't think that's the problem, but I may be wrong.

 

[GeekDrew]

I've seen some bizarre electrical problems, but nothing quite like that...

I would make sure that the cable between your battery and your chassis is secure... all kinds of things interesting things can happen when the ground is occasionally not making contact.

I've read a lot about Grand Prixs, but not Grand Ams, so I'm not sure how similar their electrical systems are, so I'd rather not give bad advice.

You might want to check out http://www.clubgp.com - it's a Grand Prix forum, but I'm sure there's people over there that could help. Note that ClubGP takes forever to load, and occasionally times out for no apparent reason... sometimes you've got to have patience to use that forum

I frequent http://www.regalgs.org - It's a Buick Regal GS forum, and that's the forefront of the discussion, but you might be able to find someone over there that knows about Grand Am electrical systems as well.

 

[radioouman]

That is a good point. My guess is that there would be an connection somewhere near the computer for ground. You might want to make sure that it is not corroded and that it is tight. Also, make sure that the connections between hte battery and the computer are tight.

 

[Danman]

Originally posted by: radioouman
That is a good point. My guess is that there would be an connection somewhere near the computer for ground. You might want to make sure that it is not corroded and that it is tight. Also, make sure that the connections between hte battery and the computer are tight.

I'll see if I can find something...

 

[Danman]

Bump!

 

[rudeguy]

I am guessing you have multiple problems. That relay you spoke of always goes bad on those cars. We keep some just for spares. So that is one issue.

The other things could be something as simple as a bad battery, but more than likely it has something to do with your factory alarm and anti theft device. It might be worth it to bring it to the dealer to have them put it on the computer. I don't even know how you would go about diagnosing something like this without doing that.