Ok, so I have this weird problem…and you guessed right, it’s electrical. Today in the morning I got in the car, everything’s fine, starts right up, and off to work I go. It sat in the parking lot for about 3-3.5 hours and I get back to it. Now it doesn’t start. Symptoms: no light on the dash in the “on” position, diagnostic doesn’t run, no power to the radio, no click of the relay when the key is turned, but a buzzing-clunking noise from the top left corner of the dash. In 15-20 seconds the dash lights come on like they do, but no diagnostics again, power to the radio comes up, of course it’s displaying “CODE” now. Starter clicks a few times and stops, no click of the relay at all when you go to turn the key. So I push started the car and it ran fine with one exception, my speedo moved right along with the Tach, apparently showing RPM (or rising/dropping voltage coming out of the alt). I got home, turned the car off, tried again. Same thing, no start, but I can still push-start the car…and apparently power drops from all accessories after I turn the key from “on” to “acc” for a minute, and than resumes for a short time. Also, when I turn on the flashers in any key position other than “on” there’s that same buzzing/clunking noise coming out of the top left corner of the dash, but they simply din’t work when the key is in “on” position…..umm…I can’t push-start the car all the time and I kinda need it for work…

 

That has got to be a ground. Did you check your battery terminals, connections, and ground point?

If you can push start it and it runs/works fine (with the exception of the speedo), it has to be battery related.

 

OOH OOH! I know! it's the sound of a relay trying to work when it's not grounded. I accidentally disconnected the ground on my side marker lights a few weeks ago, and that's the sound it made. So, yeah, what Sniper said.

 

I didn't mess with the grounds at all...and the battery cables are connected ok...I even took the battery cables off and tried running it that way...still same crap happened...

 

^yeah sounds to me like a crappy battery

 

I guess autozone, here I come to check out my battery...and if it's that I'll get an optima yellow top...hopefully it's not...also I'll be taking out my reverse glow gauges at the same time...got tired of those...

 

It might be the glow gauge connections that are causing the problems.

Yellow tops are bad ***, but you can shave ~ 25lbs with a Braille. Same cranking amps and for around the same price.

 

What's Braille? My gauge faces were there for like over a year..never had a problem...but we'll see...that was the first question I got from md420 if I had those, so I'll try to take 'em off first...

 

Braille is a lightweight battery. It weighs like 11lbs.

 

at $180 plus shipping that sure is expensive...but if it's the damned battery I'll do it...and probably some new wiring and hoses are in order...