puzzling electrical problem

[juno]

help naman mga peepz,

old skul mirage oto ko.
battery is motolite maintenance free and is relatively new.
dati nang meron problema ang ignition switch ko so nilagyan ko ng push button switch. one click start ang resulta. no problem with this for years na.
meron din alarm. 10 months old. krypton ang brand.
power locks installed.
stereo head unit ay fujitsu 10 - yung galing ng honda.
aircon is working properly.

now eto problema:
just recently, nakakaexperience ako ng black out pag on ko ng ignition key, then push the start button. - as in totally dead. walang redondo, patay lahat pati mga gauge lamps (normally umiilaw yung mga gauge lamps pag on mo pa lang ng ignition). pati power locks di gumagana.

3 times na nangyari ito sa akin since last week. intermittent kung mangyari.. most of the time, wala akong starting problem. laging 1 click.

nung first time nangyari, kala ko nabasa lang yung electrical system ko kasi nagpa carwash ako.. so off ko agad, then open hood. tiningnan ko, la naman signs na nabasa yung loob. then pag subok ko ulit, start agad sya.

after a few days, eto na naman. pag start ko, biglang patay ulit lahat. (yung parang nag short na kuryente at naputukan ka ng fuse sa bahay) . off ko lang yung ignition key, then pag on ko, meron na ulit.

then this afternoon, ganun ulit. this time, the on and off thing did not work. i tried to use the remote key nung alarm to see kung mag aarm pero di nag respond. so i had to open up the hood again to check if there's really something's wrong with my battery. kumuha ako ng tool, para tanggalin sana yung positive wire sa terminal nun battery. nun pinukpok ko pa lang para mag loosen yung terminal, nag alarm yung oto. so pindot agad ako nun pang disable. gumana na ulit after that. nakapag start na ulit ako ng oto.

eto ang iba pang sintomas... pag nag dead sya, yung stereo ko ay nag rereset. meaning yung mga preset stations nabubura. pero ang ipinagtataka ko, yung clock sa dashboard di nagrereset. ganun pa din. sinubukan ko tanggalin yung positive battery terminal for about a minute nun ibinalik ko, yung clock di nagreset. 8:30 pa din yung oras. yung stereo, as usual na reset. huh??? ang gulo talaga. yung clock alam ko pag natanggal sa battery terminal balik sa 1:00 ung oras. wala naman internal battery yun.

ano kaya ang may problema sa oto ko?? i have a suspicion na baka yung alarm system ko ang nagkakaproblema. im sure di yung battery kasi ang lakas ng busina kahit kelan di naman nagbabago. pag walang topak napakadali naman mag start. yun lang pag nag dead sya, as in magpapanic ka kasi wala lahat gagana na kahit anong electrical. pati yung clock display nawawala. pero pag nagkaron na ng kuryente, di naman narereset yung clock.

baka meron sa inyong nakaexperience na ng ganitong problema, paki share naman.

note: walang mumu sa oto ko ha... wala naman nadisgrasya pa yun eh... hehehehhe

[benchph1]

experienced that before on my dads ol' box type lancer
the culprit is the voltage regulator on the alternator.
next time you have an engine wash dont just cover the distributor , battery & the spark plugs cover the alternator too. if you can also cover the starter, better.

[jayjay_rolla95]

bat ganon? i have read a lot about disconnecting battery and all of them tells me to disconnect the negative first then the positive... anyway, it could only be that ur battery connection isnt that really tight, check it, then check ur alternator... make sure all connections are secure...

[juno]

*jayjay,

yup they are all right about disconnecting the negative terminal first before removing the positive. medjo panic na kasi ako nun kasi kala may short sa linya ng kuryente ko kaya i was attempting to remove the positive terminal first.

nagexperiment ako dun naman sa bahay, i removed first the negative, then the positive. pag soli ko naman positive first, then the negative. (di ko na lang na-specify s mahaba kong kwento. heheheheh) dun ko nakita na di nagreset yung car clock ko.

*bench, di po ako nagpa engine wash. car wash lang po. but in any case, di talaga nabasa yung alternator nun tiningnan ko. ligong uwak ata ginawa dun sa oto ko un carwash eh.

[yebo]

if your battery is new, it may still be under warranty so why not bring it back to the vendor and have it checked and then maybe replaced by a new one?

[kinyo]

juno,

symptom ng bad contact sa battery terminals ... or, very unlikely, an internal defect of battery, a crack or anything that could prevent delivery of power intermittently

but the clock's strange behavior is a real puzzle

meron ka bang malaking capacitor sa sound system mo? even a small capacitor might be capable of powering the clock for a minute or so ... to verify this, disconnect the battery, turn on ignition, turn on headlights and/or plug the lighter to quickly discharge whatever is trying to provide power to the clock ... or simply disconnect the battery overnight then check the clock in the morning (after reconnecting battery) ...

or if you know how to use a voltmeter, disconnect the battery, turn on ignition, then check the battery terminals with the voltmeter, if you get any reading other than zero, this indicates presence of a power source and if it is a capacitor, it will eventually discharge (which can be obeserved with the voltmeter as its voltage will slowly drop to zero)

note that the troubleshooting procedure above is only to find out why the clock is behaving strangely, not for the "intermittently dead" problem

good luck!

[juno]

napraning na nga ako dun sa clock eh... so what i did is to dismantle my dashboard and remove the clock from it. ayun, nagreset na nun tinanggal ko dun sa socket nya. pagkasoli ko, inistart ko syempre to see if i have put back everything in order. tapos tanggal ako ng battery terminals. medyo it took a little while bago nawala yung power ng clock so malamang yung natitirang power lang dun sa system ang nagbigay ng life dun sa clock.

anyways, i'll be off to the battery supplier this weekend to have it checked na din. so far, wala na naman yung problema.