Thread: Help, electrical issue, 98 gsx will not start.

i have had no car for 3 weeks now and i have an electrical issue. My car is a 98 gsx and the only thing that works is the stereo ans the interior lights. My boost controller, tt, afc, dash, and the windows and sunroof will not roll down. The car turns over but it will not start we already checked the fuses and nothing, last week on wed. out of nowhere everything came back on but as soon as everything came back on it quickly went back out, I have no idea what this means, please if anyone has any suggestions, I would gladly appreciate it.
Thanks.
Jr. :D

well, I just bought a new optima battery and it still did the same thing, car would still not start. We had already checked the ecu and it is fine. How exactly will i be able to tell if there is a bad ground?, I should mention that only a month ago I had a new head unit installed, Pioneer in dash tv, I talked to the installer and just as he said it is connected by a harness and the ground is hooked up to a metal piece right next to the in dash on a metal panel of the car. The windows and sunroof just do not work at all. I went to a local electrical shop and described them my situation and they said it is probably a short. but they want to charge me $120 just to check it for the first hour and a half and I still have to pay for towing. The reason I mention this is because is this situation something that is easily fixable or does it require someone with knowledge on this field?

Originally Posted by 209gsx98

well, I just bought a new optima battery and it still did the same thing, car would still not start. We had already checked the ecu and it is fine. How exactly will i be able to tell if there is a bad ground?, I should mention that only a month ago I had a new head unit installed, Pioneer in dash tv, I talked to the installer and just as he said it is connected by a harness and the ground is hooked up to a metal piece right next to the in dash on a metal panel of the car. The windows and sunroof just do not work at all. I went to a local electrical shop and described them my situation and they said it is probably a short. but they want to charge me $120 just to check it for the first hour and a half and I still have to pay for towing. The reason I mention this is because is this situation something that is easily fixable or does it require someone with knowledge on this field?

Get yourself a good ohm/voltmeter, and start tracing harnesses... see if anything looks frayed, if any insulation is cracked... electrical issues, esp in these newer cars is a nightmare... it's just a lot of tracing circuits, making sure they're all good... it takes forever... and they're not all in the easiest to get to places... that's the biggest problem, and there's a lot of wires... if you don't know much about electrical circuits, then it might be better to get it done... also, I reccomend that since you own a DSM, you go down to the local AAA office and sign up for a AAA Plus... if you don't use a tow in the first year, you get 100 mile towing and they let you have 4 tows a year... (have had it since I was 16, and I've used all 4 tows every year)

Thanks alot for all the info, but is it possible that the install could have caused this?, And also if I was to put the stock injectors back in the car do you guys think that the car will start or with an electrical issue like this, should I even bother? Thanks again.
Jr.

Originally Posted by 209gsx98

Thanks alot for all the info, but is it possible that the install could have caused this?, And also if I was to put the stock injectors back in the car do you guys think that the car will start or with an electrical issue like this, should I even bother? Thanks again.
Jr.

I don't know... pull the unit and unplug the harness from it, see if it makes any difference... I doubt it, but when it comes to electrical, there's just too many possibilities...