Aaron's 00 TA

iTrader: (6)

I was driving the car out of my neighborhood, when I noticed that the gauges were not working. I was coming up on a stop sign, I pushed the clutch in and the car dies. Gauges were not working and there were no SES lights. I try to restart the car and nothing. Not even a click like the car is trying to turn over. The radio works, windows and antenna go up and down, the headlights even work. I pulled every fuse in the car and none of them are blown. I pulled the battery out and took it to Autozone to have tested and the battery is good.

We pushed the car and popped the clutch and the car started up just fine, but the gauges were not working. The instrument lights work, but the right blinker light is on(not flashing). I drove the car home, turned it off, and tried to restart it and it did the same thing as before. No click, no starter trying to turn over, and the gauges didn't turn on.

After the car cooled down, I jacked up the car and checked underneath for any loose or burnt wires, but found nothing. We tried to reset the computer by pulling the fuses and waiting 5 minutes but that didn't help. Any suggestions??

Coincedence: Yesterday Firebat(firebatscave.com) and I installed a Harlan shift light. We did not have to do any wiring, since the previous owner(Sporadic on here) had one installed and left all the wires and all we had to do was plug-program and play. The car ran like a champ all day long yesterday with no issues.

Blakbird24

iTrader: (24)

Three words: Al ter nator

Ok so it's not really three words, but I thought that would be more dramatic. When your gauges start acting up like that and your car struggles to start or run, that's 99% most definetly the alternator. Either in installing the shift light there was a short that fried the alternator, or it's just an incredible coincidence that it happened to be on it's way out at the time.

tones2SS

Definitely sounds like the alternator. 9 times out of 10, if you look your car's symptom's, it got to be the alternator. Good luck and hope all works out for ya!!!!!!!!!!

Aaron's 00 TA

iTrader: (6)

What makes you think it is the alternator? Why would the car not start if the alternator was bad? The battery was good when I had it tested.

I had the battery tested on the same day it happened. I've checked every fuse and they are all good. I took the starter to Autozone tonight and had it tested and it worked great.

Z28Venom

iTrader: (13)

If it isn't the starter or the battery, the final culprit is the the alternator..

Aaron's 00 TA

iTrader: (6)

Shouldn't the car start even though the alternator is bad?

Aaron's 00 TA

iTrader: (6)

I was thinking it was the VATS, but according to this site:
http://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/vats.shtml

The car cannot be pushed started if it was the VATS.

CaptUSA

iTrader: (5)

I'm thinking you've got some good advise bud. GL on your car.

Tiger2o69

iTrader: (16)

Maybe their is a shortage between the fuse and the instrament panel becuase if that fues goes out then the car wont crank. I believe they did this to keep people from removing the fuse to run the car w/o counting miles. I had the same thing happen, everything worked but the speedo and stuff then my car wouldnt crank i was like wtf and then i checked the fuses and thats what it was.

Maybe when you hooked that stuff up something got messed up but i had the exact same problem except it was just my fuse. Since you have checked that it obviously between the fuse and panel.

It doesnt sound like the alternator considering everything else works, plus once the car was push started it would have just died again because your battery would have already been drained.

Aaron's 00 TA

iTrader: (6)

The pcm keeps an accurate count of the mileage so you could actually drive around with the odometer not working, but the pcm would know the actual mileage.

It isn't an alternator, I don't see the correlation between the alternator and the car not displaying any gauges and not cranking.

I did notice that the TCS light does not light up with the key on, so I'm thinking it may be a fuseable link near the instrument panel.

Blakbird24

iTrader: (24)

Example: My 1996 GTP's alternator started dying the last week of August last year. The gauges would sweep everytime the car was started and they would act erratically during use. Also, the car would not always start, sometimes it would fire right up, other times it took several tries. The car ran like this for two weeks before I didn't have enough power to use it at all. If your battery is good, it will last quite some time. The voltage drop seen by the absence of a good working alternator causes your computer to freak out, and that's why the gauges act up and other lights are not working. Chances are your alternator isn't dead, but dying.

You can prove this true or false pretty easily. Hook up the battery to a charger and watch the Ammeter. If the battery is taking a charge, then let it charge for a bit, if it doesn't charge right up in say 5 minutes, then it's definetly a bad alternator. If you can't do that test, take it to a battery dealer and they can easily test it for you. The only other possibility I can think of is maybe your ECM is just fried.

Tiger2o69

iTrader: (16)

I dont know if the pcm keeps a count of not but there was a post about it the other day and someone who worked for gm said that the pcm does not keep up with the milage.

I believe your right about the panel. Mine did the exact same thing , right down to the right blinker. I went outside and took out my fuse to make sure and it was exackly whats happening to u.

Aaron's 00 TA

iTrader: (6)

Do you remember what fuse it was?

Tiger2o69

iTrader: (16)

yes, I looked today when i took it out, it was fuse 9 for guages. I believe my problem was a little more simple tho just being the fuse. Yours probably isnt the fuse considering you have checked all of them. But i would definetly say that it has something to do with the wiring or something in your instrament panel.

XtinctHawk02

I would agree with the other guys. The alternator sounds like the culprit. When my alternator went out on my previous car, a camaro, All of the gauges went crazy and then shut off and then the car died. These GM alternators are nothing special. They seem to not last that long anymore.
Take out your alternator and have it checkd at Autozone to see if it is any good.

Aaron's 00 TA

iTrader: (6)

Did you ever figure out why it blew?

Aaron's 00 TA

iTrader: (6)

Was your battery dead too??

Tiger2o69

iTrader: (16)

I thought he already had the battery and alternator checked out by autozone? When my alternator went out on my mustang it did nothing like this, it took 2 weeks to go completely out however it did not just mess up my guages it messed everything up. You guys have had camaros longer than i have tho so maybe they r different.

infinitebird

iTrader: (11)

That depends on how much power was left in the battery when the alternator went out and how long the car was running afterward. Usually it can continue to run for a little while until there is no charge left in the battery.

Danny2tek

iTrader: (1)

Damn nobody has mentioned to check the battery terminals for heavy corrosion?