No Power?? Stalled Engine??

[GMGQ]

Recently my car has no power at all sometimes. It happens sometimes when I goto my car and turn off my alarm. After the chirps, there's no electrical power at all for the car. I insert my key to unlock the doors, and only the driver side will unlock (usually the passenger's power doorlock unlocks too). I get in, the dome light isn't on, the time isn't on. Nothing. I turn my key, nothing.<BR>I've got dancing neons that are sound activated, and they actually light up when I make some noise. They're hooked up directly to the battery, so I guess the battery is fine.<P>I get power back after opening and closing my door a few times. At this point, the clock is back (at 1:00), and my deck is reset. But the car starts up fine, and the battery indicator isn't on.<P>So my guess is that maybe there's a loose wire..? But where could there be a wire that would cause Everything to lose power? Could something be shorting out? Loose ground...? But where? I'm 99.9% stumped... No idea whatsoever about where to start.<P>Any and ALL help is greatly appreciated.<P>------------<P>Ack, this morning while I was backing up into a parking stall here at work, my left elbow bumped the driver side door. Then I suddenly lost all power! Deck shut off, engine shut off. Then 2 seconds later all these indicator lights came on (i.e. check engine). <BR>I put it in park and turned down the key, then restarted, and it started again <phew, wasn't even in the stall yet!>.<P>What could be in that door that would cause this? The only extra thing I have in there is the passive crossover box for my front speakers, hooked up with the tweeter & speaker. If those leads were touching each other, could that cause a temporary short of some sort...? <P>THANKS....

[Alt-Tab]

That's really wierd. Since you say you bumped the door with your elbow when it happened, it makes me want to believe that your problem is in there.<P>If I were you, I'd take the door panel off, or at least take out the speakers, and check to make sure you don't have some sort of power supply touching the body of the car. Check power windows, power door locks, anything electrical, make sure all "hot" wires are either taped, soldered, or preferrably both.<P>I think I'd start with the speakers and crossover, since they're aftermarket, before I took the whole panel off though.<P>Good luck!

[metalik]

I'd definitly have to agree with a problem within the door, due to the fact that you can run into the same problem while using a slim jim to break into an mx-3, because there are guard bars and once you pass them, you only have to so much as tap the power window, or lock wires and there shot, may as well take of the entire interior door panel and hope to god things work out

[GMGQ]

Huh. I think (HOPE!) I figured it out. It turns out the battery connectors were loose. Not the actual clamps that go onto the battery, but where the cables attach to those clamps. I tightened it 2 nights ago, and so far so good (no more power loss). <P>I checked it before, but I only checked the top part of the clamp, where my accessories are attached. And that part was tight. I guess that's why my neons lighted up no problem. But the cables where the car gets power from the battery are attached to the bottom half of the clamps, so I didn't notice it the first time. I guess slamming the door a few times just shook it enough to regain proper contact with the clamp>battery. And my elbow banging the door was just a coincidence.<P>Again, it's only been about a day and a half -- but it's looking good so far (clock hasn't reset to 1:00!!). But yeah, both cables on the + & - were very loose, so that looks like the source of the problem.<P>Thanks for your suggestions guys. If the problem happens again, I will definitely have to resort to taking apart the panel to check things out.