BIG PROBLEM! HELP! 00 Regal GS

[Sampuppy1]

I know. I know. It's not a 400 but I'm in some deep sh*t here and need guidance.

Here goes.

So I've had this car for a couple months now. Hasn't given me a whole lot of trouble. Until tonight.

I've been driving around all day with no problems. Got home and had to leave to go get the fiance from the gym.

No start condition. Courtesy entry lights came on. Cluster lit up. Lights and bungee worked. Turned to start and the starter relay clicked and everything cut off. Like an unhooked battery. Couldn't even get the key out. Odd. So I popped the hood wiggled the connections and the interior lights came back on. Same issue. Relay clicked, dead. Alright. Tightened the negative. Car started. Ran fine. Did my errand came home. Went to move the car. Relay clicked. Dead. The connection is tight. Wiggled the wire. Back in business. This process happened six times. I finally got it to start but it struggled to get running. So I shut it off and pulled the connections. Little bit of gunk in the terminals. Cleaned dried and reattached. Now for the effed up part. Nothing worked. Like everything was unhooked again. No domes. Nothing. Finally fiddled with it and got my key out. Ignition off. I hear relays clicking like crazy. Walk around the front and my side markers are lit very dimly. WHAT. THE. FAWK. pulled the fuse panel cover on passenger side and pull the park light fuse. Everything stops. Put it back in. **** goes nuts again. Pull it and no change now. Relays still going now. I'm losing my **** at this point. Pop the underhood fuse cover. Feel around for the clicking relays.

I bumped the 18 fuel pump spd control and 19 fuel pump relays and everything paused so I tried again and got qnother pause. Pulled 18 and everything stopped. Put back in and only the 13 IGN A starts going nuts. Mind you all this is with the keys off. Hanging on my belt loop. No remote start on this car either.

So I pulled the IGN A. Everything stops again. Pop it back in and the panic alarm starts going off. The horn is buzzing. Not honking. Just buzzing very loudly in the panic pattern. The low beams are on constant. Super dim. I can't tell. What else may have been going over the relays and horn. And I smell rotting eggs at this point. I rush to get the battery disconnected. The negative is so hot I can't hardly touch it. I let everything cool down and now I have nothing. I'm fawking stumped, I almost had a battery explode in my face and my car can't even move now.


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Tyler/T-Unit

 

[Bob L]

I would suspect a bad ground if it is providing enough resistance to get hot. Could be the terminal end to cable connection is corroded or melted from having a loose connection. If you have an alarm that could be all the other issues triggered by the poor ground.

 

[Biggershaft96]

I would suspect a bad ground if it is providing enough resistance to get hot. Could be the terminal end to cable connection is corroded or melted from having a loose connection. If you have an alarm that could be all the other issues triggered by the poor ground.

This but also replace whatever wire you were wiggling to begin with.

 

[BoxerPitMix]

This isn't a gmt400! Get outta here!!!

Kidding...

That sucks! But I did have a similar problem on my old ZR2. It would be fine for a week or so, then suddenly I would try to start it and all I would get was a click and everything went dead. I'd clean the terminals, it would be ok for a bit, then I started having to jump it from time to time. Then it started doing really odd stuff, all my gauges would go crazy as well as anything else electrical on my truck... Then everything would be fine for another day or two.
This when it had the factory Delco battery. I took it to the dealer and they put a new battery in under warranty, told me the old one had a bad cell (it was also leaking out of the sidepost). I never fully understood it, but it never acted up again.

Probably a long shot, but maybe swap out a battery and try it?

 

[Justin S]

I had a similar issue years ago with my 94 c1500. Backstory is, I was young and stupid and didn't bother having a battery hold down, because what's the point, it's not going anywhere, right? Well, I was bombing through a big puddle that dipped down pretty good. Slammed into it, and all of a sudden all of my lights got super dim, relays were buzzing, and the engine barely ran. Shut it off and popped the hood, the battery had flipped forwards and was shorting out on the tray. I flipped it back up as soon as I saw it, but it had somehow got the firewall hot enough to melt through my clutch line and fuel line to the point where I had to replace both. Not the same situation, but sure sounds like you've got a hell of a short somewhere.

 

[DirtBag]

Yep sounds like a bare wire could be rubbing up against something metal. I would wait for daylight and give it a good looking over for loose connections or insulation that has been rubbed off. If its getting that hot, I gotta think short or hot wire to ground.

Didn't you hit a deer recently? Maybe that was someone else....Last one I hit popped some fuses on my 98 when all of the lights on the front were destroyed and shorted out.

 

[Bob L]

Not necessarily a short circuit to ground, A bad connection creates resistance as currant cannot easily flow. Resistance creates heat. Also a dirty or loose connection can create arching of the connection for the currant to flow, again more heat created. Start with the wires you were wiggling to get a connection and look for corrosion or burnt connections.

 

[Sampuppy1]

I would suspect a bad ground if it is providing enough resistance to get hot. Could be the terminal end to cable connection is corroded or melted from having a loose connection. If you have an alarm that could be all the other issues triggered by the poor ground.

I pulled the boots off the cable connections and cleaned them up nice even though they were really clean to begin with. All the crazy **** started happening after I did that.

This but also replace whatever wire you were wiggling to begin with.

The wire wasn't loose at all. And I got it to half ass start after the cleaning and tightening up the negative that was ever so slightly loose.

This isn't a gmt400! Get outta here!!!

Kidding...

That sucks! But I did have a similar problem on my old ZR2. It would be fine for a week or so, then suddenly I would try to start it and all I would get was a click and everything went dead. I'd clean the terminals, it would be ok for a bit, then I started having to jump it from time to time. Then it started doing really odd stuff, all my gauges would go crazy as well as anything else electrical on my truck... Then everything would be fine for another day or two.
This when it had the factory Delco battery. I took it to the dealer and they put a new battery in under warranty, told me the old one had a bad cell (it was also leaking out of the sidepost). I never fully understood it, but it never acted up again.

Probably a long shot, but maybe swap out a battery and try it?

Funny you mention that.

I took the battery to get load tested today. Hooked up the tester and it read a solid 13.5 no load. He turned the knob and before the resistance needle even got a chance to move...... The voltage bottomed out to 0. Tightened the lugs and same thing. So I took a brand new interstate battery home. Put it in. Car acts like nothing ever happened.

The battery was dropping voltage so low that the BCM and ECM had no clue where to put power. It was trying to power everything but with the battery being shot the draw was too much. That's what I was hoping for. Walk away a hundred bucks poorer and with a great story to tell.

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Tyler/T-Unit