QuestionQUESTION: i have a 2000 cirrus v6 lxi. The battery is fairly new 1yr and I'm having a problem starting it. When i turn the key I have no response from the engine (one day it worked fine the next nothing). The only dash light i get is the brake light and odometer. What is strange all the accessories work except the radio and wipers.
ANSWER: Hi Dennis,
Check fuses 7 and 8 in the box under the hood, and check fuse 11 in the box behind the left-hand end cap of the dash. The radio and the wipers are on separate fuses from those which would make me question whether the battery voltage is up to snuff. You can have lights, but anything requiring significant current may pull the voltage down on a low state of charge battery such as to not function. Finally, try moving the shift lever slightly off-center from the detent position in case the safety interlock is out of adjustment, when you try the starter. Have a helper listen/feel for whether the starter relay in the box under the hood clicks when you try the starter. It is the front one on the driver side, of the 4 relays located at the slightly lower level of the box at the very rear of it.
Roland
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---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Roland
I started from the beginning again and found that fuse 8 was blown (hard to see). I replaced it and everything worked but the battery was dead. When I tried to jump it with and without the car battery connected fuse 8 blows everytime. Could the battery form the other car be to much??? thanks again.
AnswerHi Dennis,
That fuse is probably 'overworked' in the original design of the wiring. Let me describe all the things that is does, and then you can try removing the various possible items/fuses to find out which when removed stops it from blowing and thus attend to the cause that way.
Starter: the current goes thru the starter motor relay to the starter solenoid switch which when activated causes the starter motor to operate directly off the battery. That solenoid switch on the starter motor could be faulty and you could disconnect the brown wire at the starter to take it out of the circuit.
fuel pump: the current flows thru the fuel pump relay in the box under the hood and actually then runs the fuel pump. You could remove that relay to take it out of the circuit.
Those two items are called into play by turning the key to start in the case of the starter, and to both 'run' and start in the case of the fuel pump. So see if the fuse still blows when they are removed.
The the current also goes to the igniton switch from fuse 8 in the run position and is drawn by: several other relay coils such as the a/c compressor clutch, fans, fuel pump for the leak detector relay, and also the instrument cluster; powertrain controller (those can be removed by pulling fuses 9 and 10 in the underhood box). Then there is the radio, the multifunction switch on the steering column wiper relay, airbag control module. Those are fused via fuses 14,15, 17 in the box behind the dash.
An amazing number of possible causes for fuse 8 to blow!
If you pull the unnecessary circuit' fuses, and then try the starter and see if the fuse still blows when you try the starter, it may point you toward the starter solenoid switch as the problem or the fuel pump. Try removing the fuel pump relay and see if you still lose the fuse when you try the start.
Of course with an ohmmemter you can probably figure out which circuit has too low a resistance and thus find which one is overdrawing the current through fuse 8.
It will take some sleuthing, obviously, but I don't have any single answer for you. I don't think it has anything to do with the jumper battery.
Roland
