S14-Suddenly no Electrical, help please!

[DFWZenki]

I have a '95 S14 with a stock KA. Yesterday i pulled in to work and parked. Turned the key back one postition to turn the motor off but still listen to the radio, and everything turned off.
Didnt realize the extent of what happened till that night.
Nothing works inside or outside the car except my headlights and my motor. NOTHING else works.Car still runs good but now Only have headlights.
No Brake lights, No running lights, Turn signals, Nothing on the interior(p/windows,locks,radio,or cluster). I have checked all the fuses in the drivers side kick panel and all the fuses and relays under the hood. Checked all the grounds i can think of. Pretty lost right now as to what it could be. Car is completly STOCK except for LEDs in the cluster, suspension, Digital Climate Control swap(done by me), and 8000k HIDs. Everything was installed properly. Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[midnight_rex]

i would check all modifications done to the lighting of your car. make sure nothing is shorting anywhere.

[Hashiriya415]

FSM electrical schematic will have the answer. It will show you the complete circuit from power, wires, connector locations, switches, loads, fuses, ground locations.

[DFWZenki]

Thanks for the responses guys. Im actually thumbing through the FSM as we speak trying to figure something out. If anyone else has any suggestions I would LOVE to hear them. Thanks guys.

Anyone know if the Ignition would cause a big power loss like this? Anyone had any bad experiences with their ignition?

[ADiamond240sx]

Check the red connector that is right off the battery. The connections inside go funky and will cause problems as you have described. If it is the problem replace it or just bypass the stupid thing.

[DFWZenki]

Check the red connector that is right off the battery. The connections inside go funky and will cause problems as you have described. If it is the problem replace it or just bypass the stupid thing.

Ok, thanks for the suggestion. Ill check it out!

[Z U L8R]

could be the ignition switch, yes your car starts but possibly the contacts for accessory power are burnt or something. easy test. make sure your accessory circuits are getting power when in accessory or ignition on position.

while you're at it make sure all the ignition switch wires are getting power when they should. the ignition switch's on s14's go bad from time to time, it's not a common thing but it's not unheard of either.

i think you'll be able to deduce your problem with a little more testing.

best of luck and post back up what you find

Dave

[Hashiriya415]

Ignition switch and brake light have nothing in common. Testing Ignition switch = most likely waste time because only the other things are related to switch, if he didn't mention brake light then switch would be reasonable.
The brake light is the easiest circuit to test, why don't you test that first then go from there.

[Z U L8R]

Ignition switch and brake light have nothing in common. Testing Ignition switch = most likely waste time because only the other things are related to switch, if he didn't mention brake light then switch would be reasonable.

Hashiriya, i get what you're saying and why, but follow my logic for a second.



I have a '95 S14 with a stock KA. Yesterday i pulled in to work and parked. Turned the key back one postition to turn the motor off but still listen to the radio, and everything turned off.
Didnt realize the extent of what happened till that night.
Nothing works inside or outside the car except my headlights and my motor. NOTHING else works.Car still runs good but now Only have headlights.
No Brake lights, No running lights, Turn signals, Nothing on the interior(p/windows,locks,radio,or cluster). I have checked all the fuses in the drivers side kick panel and all the fuses and relays under the hood. Checked all the grounds i can think of. Pretty lost right now as to what it could be. Car is completly STOCK except for LEDs in the cluster, suspension, Digital Climate Control swap(done by me), and 8000k HIDs. Everything was installed properly. Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in advance.

1. so the problem started with turning the key back one position................so the car was running which means the key was in the ON position. turning it back one would put it in the ACCESSORY position.

2. so what does the key in the ignition lock cylinder turn that has ANYTHING to do with electrical in the car?

3. what's the main switch in the car that dictates which circuits get juice and when?

4. what can send and take away power to the electronics in the car that ALL run off of the "ACCESSORY" power supply with which this car is having issues because they are no longer working since the key has been turned back there.

answer : Ignition Switch

now i know when he said "brake lights" it threw you off, because the brake lights are a fused power supply that have battery power at all times.

but maybe it has 2 issues, maybe it doesn't, however if 99% of his electrical problems are in the accessory power supply, then i'll start there

so anyways, because all #1-4 points have to do with the ignition switch, logically my suggestion to OPer was to check it.

if everything checks good and the ignition switch is sending power to these accessory circuit, the next logical step would be, while you're at it, might as well check the other circuits since it'll take 30 more seconds. ok everything checks ok, accessory circuits are getting power from the switch.

"does the accessory relay which is located by the driver's left foot behind the kick panel have power? i know you said you checked all the fuses and relays under the hood but this relay is in the car..."

A. "yes." = continue down the circuit until you find where you're not getting power to the components along this circuit and the short lies therein. first obvious place to look would be the fuses. they may not be blown fuses but you're testing to see if they're getting power.

B. "no."= repair the short in the white/blue wire in between the ignition switch and the Accessory Relay.

can you (Hashiriya) see now where i'm coming from now?

Oper, hope that helps,

Dave

[ADiamond240sx]

Hashiriya, i get what you're saying and why, but follow my logic for a second.





1. so the problem started with turning the key back one position................so the car was running which means the key was in the ON position. turning it back one would put it in the ACCESSORY position.

2. so what does the key in the ignition lock cylinder turn that has ANYTHING to do with electrical in the car?

3. what's the main switch in the car that dictates which circuits get juice and when?

4. what can send and take away power to the electronics in the car that ALL run off of the "ACCESSORY" power supply with which this car is having issues because they are no longer working since the key has been turned back there.

answer : Ignition Switch

now i know when he said "brake lights" it threw you off, because the brake lights are a fused power supply that have battery power at all times.

but maybe it has 2 issues, maybe it doesn't, however if 99% of his electrical problems are in the accessory power supply, then i'll start there

so anyways, because all #1-4 points have to do with the ignition switch, logically my suggestion to OPer was to check it.

if everything checks good and the ignition switch is sending power to these accessory circuit, the next logical step would be, while you're at it, might as well check the other circuits since it'll take 30 more seconds. ok everything checks ok, accessory circuits are getting power from the switch.

"does the accessory relay which is located by the driver's left foot behind the kick panel have power? i know you said you checked all the fuses and relays under the hood but this relay is in the car..."

A. "yes." = continue down the circuit until you find where you're not getting power to the components along this circuit and the short lies therein. first obvious place to look would be the fuses. they may not be blown fuses but you're testing to see if they're getting power.

B. "no."= repair the short in the white/blue wire in between the ignition switch and the Accessory Relay.

can you (Hashiriya) see now where i'm coming from now?

Oper, hope that helps,

Dave

I like your logic when it comes to wiring ....

[Nizzan4u2nv]

Alt fuse in the engine bay is usually the culprit for that. Check it again, its a big high capacity one. Grey I believe.

[DFWZenki]

Ok. Here's my follow up on this.

First off i wanna say a BIG THANKS to the guys who gave input on this! I appreciate the help! Good to see people are still willing to help out people on here with little things! Took forever to fiure it out.

Long story short it was the wire connection coming off the (+) battery terminal. The (RED) Fusible link on the side. I am removing it and bypassing it all together with a new battery terminal and wiring done right!

-I ran up and down the ENTIRE harness.( Hashiriya415, you were right on the power route diagram in the FSM, BIG HELP!)

-I replaced the Ignition Switch thinking it was that!( Z U L8R (http://zilvia.net/f/members/z-u-l8r.html), I was right there with ya on the ignition switch thing. Ive seen some switches do some crazy stuff to cars electronics! But the no brake lights was really throwing me off on this!)

-Checked every fuse and relay in the car. Finally it was a peice i had already checked several times. I feel really dumb that it took so long to find such a simple issue but at least it was found. ( ADiamond240sx (http://zilvia.net/f/members/adiamond240sx.html), thanks for the heads up on the RED connector!)

Hopefully this will help someone else down the road some where. THANKS!

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/9234/img0418l.png (http://img14.imageshack.us/i/img0418l.png/)

[lightsource]

AND THE WINNER IS... adiamond240sx congratulations, you win imaginary rep+

lol, glad you got that figured out. Gonna change your battery terminals?

[DFWZenki]

HaHa. Yeah definately changing the terminal out with a new one.

[afiser]

ya, i suffered the same problem a while back, when i turned my brights on my entire care's electrical system would surge. that little red connector was melted and fucked. so i just bypassed it all together and it works great now.

[Z U L8R]

glad you found the problem sir, and good job on posting back up what the fix was for someone else who may get this issue in the future.

just for the record tho, i didn't say replace the ignition switch, i just said to test it, then continue through the wiring if it tests ok.

i had to explain why i'd start out with testing the ignitions switch, but anywho, just wanted to clarify that. i apologize for any confusion as my intention wasn't for you to waste money on parts without first testing their integrity.

good job on fixing it though. it's crazy simple electrical problems can cause a lot of problems and headache.

always test, never guess :) , best of luck and gj sir

Dave

[DFWZenki]

Oh no big deal. It was $30. Probably needed a new one some day anyways. But your right about the "Always test, never guess" thing. Good advise!

[obsolete]

bumping old thread...

I have a similar situation. My car was running perfectly fine for some time. Then, when I was installing a battery tray in my trunk of s14 w sr20, I moved the ground from one spot to another. after going to couple places, i pull into my house and shut off the car, but my TT didn't kick in. so I try to start the car back up and everything died on me. Absolutely NOTHING worked. So i switched the ground back to where I had it previously and ,because the key was already in ON position, I got everything back in the car. So I go to start the car and everything died again. No click from the relay or anything just dead. So I traced everything to the fuse box in the engine bay and got 12V. Now i am in the process of tracing everything per FSM from the battery. I get voltage to the ignition, but when I turn the key to ACC or On, i don't get any voltage.

So far i checked the ignition switch and it seems fine. I disconnected all the fuses fed from ACC except the relay and still get no voltage. Anyone know what is happening? I should at least have headlights, but that's not working either. gonna check the relay, but i doubt that's the problem

[younghatchowner]

good job!!!!!!!!!!!

[jvladamir]

I just wanted to bump this tread for helping me fix my 95's no power at the fuse box problems. Now my brake lights are staying on but I am sure more searching will reveal an answer for that. Thanks OP