Okay, so I was driving down the freeway and my car went nuts. The windshield wipers turned on high, the interior lights and gauges went off and on a few times and then I hear some popping/snapping sounds from under the dash and the car went dead... Any clues out there?

 

Bump por favor, i really need some help here...found out the battery shorted out but what else is wrong cause it turns over but no start ???

 

Was there any smoke or burning smell coming from the dash? I didn't have all that gnarly stuff happen to me, except the popping/snapping sounds, and smoke when I was driving home in 2004. Luckily I made, but the car wouldn't start again. My electrician found it was some relay had fried underneath there and needed replacement. If you're not looking to take it in, look up an electrical diagram and trace back from the fuse box to fuel delivery making sure the wiring looks good. *This is a novice making this suggestion.

I beg the more tech savvy to step in and help this guy out. Good luck with everything.

 

Do you hear the Main relay click after you turn the key?
maybe the shortage made the soldering on the main relay bad?
no CEL?
so does everything else work now? like the lights and stuff

 

Where was the popping coming from?

I hate electrical problems. Hope your fuse block isn't toast.

 

Oh yea guys...everything got efffed up. The alt had some short in it and the whole car went loco...my battery blew up no joke under the hood and melted a lot of shiz...replaced the bulbs, alt, all the fuzes (it blew every one of them), the relays had to be fixed...uhm and now the tach, speedometer, blinkers, etc still don't work. lPlus something huge is draining the battery cause they replaced it this morning and it was already dead by 5 pm

So long story short, once this thing gets back up to acceptable parness...shes being sold to someone who will put up with all of this ish. I went out and financed a 2002 Nissan Frontier pickup...a very nice truck if i do say so myself.

 

And you recently replaced the alternator too, didnt you?

 

Yes i just did so it was faulty...it was faulty obviously...they replaced that and the battery and every fuse etc. and it runs but theres a massive drain on the battery now that they cant find so theyre gonna do that and then my dads going to sell it...im like 2.5 hrs away from home and cant have to deal with a constantly broken down car. So i got my new car/truck.

 

Sounds like there was a severe overvoltage that burned a lot of stuff out. If it's a 2001 or later model, the multiplex control unit built into the dash fuse box is probably one of them. It controls the dome light, wipers, A/C compressor, keyless entry, and some other things. If those systems are not working the MCU is probably toast.

Finding a battery drain is not rocket science, connect amp meter in series with battery and start pulling fuses or otherwise disconnecting stuff until it goes away.

 

Yah the alt went super nova and was putting out close to 17 amps for some reason the regulator went out so it boiled (litterally) the battery and blew every fuze :/

They replaced the alt, the battery, every bulb cause they all melted, uhm and so it runs but the speedometer doesnt work for some reason and they said some other thing was draining the battery at in insane rate! Its a 700 dollar part so we might just sell it to the place working on it (cause its also a used car dealer) and cut our loses since i have a new truck.