QuestionQUESTION: We were driving home from a wedding this afternoon when the battery light came on followed by the ABS light and the failure of the fuel gauge, tach and speedometer/odometer. The fuel gauge started to register again and then everything shut down and the engine died. All this happened in the space of about a 1/2 mile as I looked for a safe place to pull over. Tow truck came and we connected jumper cables, but still nothing registered.
Could you provide me any direction for what is actually going to need repair and let me know if there is a way to manually close the top?
Thanks
ANSWER: Hi Patrick,
I suspect this is caused by something very basic such as a disconnected power cable related to the battery or the electric power distribution center which is attached to the battery. I assume there is no sign of any electrical activity with any thing that you try to activate? If not, let me know what shows signs of normal electrical "life". The other thing I need to know is whether power disrtribution center (where a number of fuses and relays are located, and is long and narrow) is positioned directly behind the radiator, to the driver's side of the mid-line and sandwiched between two computer devices (one for the engine, one for the transmission) OR is the pdc roughly square in shape and located at the left corner of the engine compartment against the inner wall of the engine compartment on the driver's side. I don't happen to have an '01 manual and sometime between the '00 and the '03 model year the pdc and balance of the electrics was changed and so I need to know if that change occured in the 01 year or not.
Roland
PS: Before trying to operate the top by hand let us try to fix the basic electrical problem.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Roland,
Thanks for the answer. Here is some additional info...2.7 V6 with the pcd located in the left front corner of the engine compartment almost directly above the battery. I pulled the battery today and it was almost completely discharged 1.6v and have it on the charger now to see if it will hold any charge at all. Before I pulled the battery there were absolutely no signs of electrical life at all.
Patrick
AnswerHi Patrick,
Either the battery shorted out internally or you have a dead short in the system. Do you have a volt-ohm meter? You could try measuring the resistance across the disconnected battery cables as an indication of the systemic short. It should read at least 1 ohm, ideally about 10 ohms, as it sits with everything shut down (no lights, no doors open, etc.). If the battery won't take a charge then that would be the answer, but be sure to check out the resistance so you don't discharge a new battery right off the line. If you find the resistance to be near or less than 1 ohm, then try removing fuse #5 from under the dash and see if that corrects the short. The other possibility is that the fat red wire from the + post of the battery to the starter motor has shorted to the chassis.
Roland
There was less than 1 ohm of resistance and that did not change when pulling the #5 fuse. Not finding any other logical places that might be causing a short, I pulled the alternator and replaced it with a remanufactured unit. All works as it should now.
Thanks for the help, Roland.
Patrick
Hi Patrick,
Thanks for that report. I looked at the items that were connected to the + post of the battery and did notice the alternator but because it is protected by a fusible link (a resistive wire that behaves like a fuse) my thought was that if the alternator had shorted to ground it would have blown the link so that wouldn't 'see' a short to ground. But perhaps the current being put out by the battery when all this happened was too low to blow the link.
Congratulations on hitting the mark.
Roland
