Hello all,

New to the forum. My wife and I have a 2002 protege5 that has served us well over the last 6 years. That said we've started to experience a curious ignition problem.

Twice now, the car will refuse to start; not even a solenoid "click". In fact the entire electrical system just doesn't turn on. The battery tests fine in terms of voltage and jumping does nothing.

The first time this happened we had the car towed home. The next day I tried to start it and sure enough it turned over. At first the electrical system faded in and out and then the starter kicked on and the engine turned over. Things were fine for 3 months.....

More recently the same thing has happened again. This time to my wife. She noticed that if she pumped the gas pedal the electrical system would flicker on and off. No gas...no electric. She finally got the car started and the radio programming was dead, indicating that somewhere during the process current stop flowing to it.

Could this be a grounding problem or a dying fuse?

Cheers,

Matt.

 

sounds like a grounding problem to me. check all of the ground wires and see if they are contacting well.

also could be a dying starter. the starter may be freezing up right now and causing this problem.

 

Thanks for your reply.

I agree, I think it is a grounding issue (hopefully the main ground) and will be looking into that ASAP.

My second thought (after a dead battery or alternator) was the starter as I had a toyota truck that had this happen.

However because the whole electrical system seems to be affected (as evidenced by a loss of radio channel programing) I think the ground makes the most sense.

Cheers,

Matt.

 

It can't be a fuse. Fuses don't act up. They just blow and that's it.
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It could be corrosion on the main fuse, which is actually a fusible link, oropen piece of metal. On a Proto, I'm not sure where to find it but it isusually located under the hood as part of the fuse box there. It might not be obvious though. I've seen a few that were well hidden from sight under a separate cover.