Gremlins in the electrics... Wagon gets a ride

Decided to go to the $200 store (Costco), last week, a 250 mile round trip. The first sign of something wrong was the climate control doing a countdown when I started the car to leave. It had no problems the rest of the way to the store, about 125 miles. Next startup things kinda went crazy. Doors locking and unlocking, dash warning lights flashing, climate control resetting and a never before heard relay clicking on and off under the dash that lasted about 30 seconds which flashed the marker lights. This relay could be reactivated by opening a door. Car wouldn't crank... no click or anything. Lucky for me a good friend lives close by so I had it hauled over there and borrowed a rig to get me home.



The car at some point had an alarm system installed as there is a disconnected alarm speaker under the hood as well as a tiny LED mounted in the dash below the radio. My question is, how likely am I to be able to cure this by removal of the alarm junk that's apparently still under the dash? Car is at a friends house 125 miles from home. The other option is to trailer the thing back home... big bucks for trailer rental and fuel for the truck.

Cheers, Vern

Removing the alarm, could straighten that whole mess. About 10 years ago, on of my daughter had a 94 CC. My brother was the original owner, his wife wanted an alarm system. He had one installed. It wreaked havoc with that car. Everything electronic had problems. I bought it for my daughter and I had problems. Crazy things electronically were happening. Car went into limp mode. Transmission guy figured the problem out. He removed the alarm.

He said the alarm drops the voltage by a fractional amount, but enough to make many things go crazy.

Remove it and throw it away.

Tom C.

Agree with Tom,if you dont have time to yank everything,cut the alarms power and access to
the fuse panel.Your battery may be dead due to the constant cycling since you left the car at
your buddys house so take a jumper battery.

Before yanking the alarm I'd take a long look at your battery connections, terminals, and cables. I had issues with corrosion inside the cables on my '96 Roady.

Good luck!

-Mike

+1 on Mike's diagnosis.

jayoldschool wrote:

+1 on Mike's diagnosis.

That all may be true, but get rid of the alarm. They are nothing but problems.

Tom C.

Thanks all... I think I'm going to take the chance and go up and try and remove/isolate the alarm. I disconnected the battery as soon as I figured out it wasn't going to fire up. If it cures it I'm only out 15 gallons of fuel vs 30+gallons if I haul a loaded trailer up and back. It's times like this that I miss my '78 C10 Suburban.

Vern

Exorcism complete. Not too difficult a job other than laying upside down under the dash. Tracing all the leads into the harness took the most time. All the wires were "teed" and soldered into the harness other than the large purple one which powered the starter, it was cut and went into a relay. The right blinker indicator light in the dash healed itself as a result of the removal, not sure what to think of that. Still no fan for the heater though. It's home, that's the good news. I can chase the little gremlins in my warm shop!



Thanks everyone for the tips!

Vern

Also check the auxiliary battery post.

toomanytoyz wrote:

Also check the auxiliary battery post.

That's the one on the passenger side inner fender?