1.6 L automatic

One night I had stopped to get gas, tried to restart the car and nothing happened. The only thing that worked was the headlights. Ended up having the car towed. After sitting for 2 days it started right up for the shop. I bring it home and it runs and starts fine for 2 months. Yesterday I tried to start it and the same thing happened. I checked the fuses and relays. The coil resistance for the main (green) relay seems high, all other relays read normal. Could a bad main relay cause this? I also noticed a 1.4 V drop across the main fuse, in other words it read ~11.2 where as the battery read a good 12.6V. I checked the resistance on both the positive and negative cables and noticed a high resistance on the negative side from battery to the main fuse. So it sounds like a bad ground, possibly caused by the relay?

 

If your unsure of the relay replace it, they arent too expensive usually. Check all your grounds and main positive connections coming of the battery for loose or corroded parts, one loose ground can do some funky things, even a blown light bulb somewhere could make strange things happen. Are you getting any voltage at all to the starter?

 

Some more information/observations. This happens more frequently now, now after doing Highway driving mostly it seems. I also noticed now that the air bag light is flashing when I can get the car running. I am able to get the car running by losing and tighting the main fuse connections and it starts everytime, with the clock and radio reset. The engine seems to run a little rough at stops in town and the radio has cut out several times when that has happened.

 

Again fix all your connections, if its working when you move wires then you need to fix this before you have an engine fire, loose connections will overheat and melt insulation. Once you fix all your electrical connection issues then let us know what else is going wrong, I hope you didn't fry your air bag system by having faulty wiring but chances are its due to poor connections also.

 

I too suspect it is a bad connection / wiring issue. But: the alternator/voltage regulator could be at fault as well. You could take the alternator out and have it checked at a parts store.

 

Ended up taking it to a shop and it ended up being that the main fuse connection was semi rotted in the fuse box and was not making a good connection. Mechanic fixed it and it now starts every time and holds settings.

 

Thanks for the feedback! I am glad you have it fixed.