Electrical Problem, No power to/through ignition, power to lights/door chime

[thefro526]

Hi guys, having a weird problem.

Started my car this morning, it was cool. Stopped once on my way to where I was headed and turned the car off. Turned it on again, seemed like it worked well. Started it again around lunch time, fine.

Went to start it about 7 hours later, and had nothing. No power to any of the circuits in the car that normally come on when the key is turned. No ACC, No Ignition, No Idiot lights on the dash, and IIRC, the clock isn't working.

But, some things ARE working. Specifically, the head lights, dome light, trunk light, and door chime.

Anyone have any ideas of what could be going on here? I checked the fusible links for the obvious blown fuse, since I knew everything had to go through there at some point and they looked good, but it was dark.

One thing that I did notice was that the ground wire was quite loose on the battery. I wasn't able to get it to tighten, but I tried manually simulating a connection and didn't notice any changes...

It's also worth noting that it's been in the 20's for the better part of this week, and it snowed quite a bit yesterday. Not sure if either of those things could have something to do with it.

So I guess the TLDR on this is:

Car was starting running fine.

Suddenly does have power to anything that requires the key in the car.

Headlights/interior lights still work.

Ground wire on battery is loose and or corroded.

Car is currently 30-35 miles from my house/tools so it's kind of hard to diag the system right, and it's 20deg outside... lol.

Would a bad ground cable cause all of these issues? Or does it appear to be a bad ignition?

[thefro526]

So, currently waiting for the tow truck to come get my car.

Went to the store this morning and got a new lug for the battery ground to rule that out. Appears to have done nothing to fix the problem.

Checked all of the fuses under the hood, they checked out. Started to pull the ignition apart to check the contacts and stuff and I'm a bit stumped.

There are 6 wires total, one blue, one red, one white with a red stripe, one black with a green stripe, and two other black wires with stripes. From what I could tell, with the key In the on position. I was getting a closed circuit across the blue and white w/ red stripe, but nothing in any other position....

Bad ignition?

[Taylor008]

It is an igntion problem (if you fixed the battery cable)

White wire is the 12v constant. Make sure you have voltage there. It's the 12 or 14ga wire. Check your fender harnesses.

[thefro526]

It is an igntion problem (if you fixed the battery cable)

White wire is the 12v constant. Make sure you have voltage there. It's the 12 or 14ga wire. Check your fender harnesses.

Thanks bro.

I ordered a new Ignition switch since it was $20 so that'll be here tomorrow. When I get home, I'll break out the test light and see if I have power at the White wire, IIRC, it's white with a red stripe or something like that.

Now that I think of it, I probably rubbed through the fender harness... AGAIN... FML. At least it's supposed to be ~40+ deg tomorrow, so if I need to trace wires, it shouldn't be TOO bad.

[02silverbugg]

I was gonna say to check the harness. I had the same problem a few days ago and I was killing myself trying to find the problem. Turns out I rubbed through more than half the harness on both sides.

[thefro526]

Went through the fender harness last night, found 4 wires that were either broken or had the insulation damaged.

Fixed those, still nothing.

Replaced the ignition, still nothing.

Rechecked all of the fusible links in the box, they all checked out fine. They all had conductivity across the terminals (verified with a multimeter) and all had power at one side (verified with a test light).

Interestingly enough the 4 wires that were damaged were all smaller, 18-22ga, and the colors Red/Yellow Stripe, Red/Blue Stripe, Orange/Green? stripe and a Black with Silver Stripe. I'm fairly sure that these are all signal and or low current wires, but who knows.

As I dug into the wiring between the ignition in the fender, I got to the point where I could not trace anymore, since I couldn't follow the 12V Constant wire any further than 1" outside of the ignition due to another device being installed in line. I'm going to contact the installer of that device and see where I get...

[blueshark123]

Any alarm system previously or currently installed?

[thefro526]

Any alarm system previously or currently installed?

Not to my knowledge.

Car does have an IID installed in it though. (IID = Ignition Interlock Device, you know, the thing that raging alcoholics get in their cars)

The IID's install was explained to me as being a '5 Wire Install'. One wire to 12V Constant, One wire to 12V ignition, One wire to Ground, One wire from the Start Circuit of the Ignition to the IID, and one from the IID to the Starter itself.

After taking the lower kick panel of my dash off last night, I found this:

https://photos-5.dropbox.com/t/0/AAADxk4Vwqm55cy57XoWP3tpG4Fk64c6xFqbSGScZHgwEQ/10/53934155/jpeg/32x32/6/_/1/2/IMG_2224.JPG/jjb4yZVMQSFfMB3lHu1ulBt1RfHUst4nwBnOcKImeGc?size=6 40x480&size_mode=2

If you look closely, you'll see that the black wire has been rubbing against the steering column where the wheel's tilt function resides. Without knowing conclusively how exactly the IID is wired (other than what I explained above) I cannot rule this out as the source of the issue...

Problem is that I cannot touch any of the wiring to and/or from that device in anyway...

[Taylor008]

White with red stripe is constant 12v alt
black/red is your ignition switched 12v that supplies ecu and coil.
Then there's the starter wire
and the acc wire.

It's been a while but those colors might not be correct. Doesn't matter though, we need to find out if you have voltage at that white alt wire. Check it before and after the IDD. And before and after the ignition switch, that will tell if your ign switch is bad.

[Shawn661]

This happened to me I thought it was my ignition also, but it turned out when I grounded a wire it blew the alternator fuse check that it's kinda hard to tell if it poped to check both sides with a test like and I picked a new one up at Nissan for 30$, hope that helps!

[S13_Ist_schön]

Did you find the solution to your problem? I am currently going through the same thing. My situation is I let my car sit for the winter because I was replacing front suspension. Started fine when I had been driving it every day, and after letting it sit, naddaa. Tried new battery, checked distributor, checked starter, plugs, wires, clutch pressure switch, gas.

[Shawn661]

Did you find the solution to your problem? I am currently going through the same thing. My situation is I let my car sit for the winter because I was replacing front suspension. Started fine when I had been driving it every day, and after letting it sit, naddaa. Tried new battery, checked distributor, checked starter, plugs, wires, clutch pressure switch, gas.
Try alt fuse