acurro

I have a GTO with 115,000 miles on it. I bought it with 8,000 miles in Michigan and it really has never caused any trouble (I live in NJ). I did have a problem that the gauges would occasionally do strange things when the car was running in the rain when the car was brand new but it fixed itself and that is not a problem anymore.

Gremlins!

The other day, though, I just started the car up and I smelled electrical burning and the battery seemed week (as if there was a short somewhere). I was close to my house so I drove right home and disconnected the battery. I reconnected it for a second and smelled burning again so disconnected it till this morning. After I reconnected it today there was no smell, so I took it for a ride and everything seemed normal, car started right up, etc. It doesn't seem like any fuses are blown and everything works.

Any thoughts? My father says the alternator in these cars isn't behind a fuse so if the alternator was bad and shorting it could cause it.

breze84

How old is the battery... Could be you need a new one....

acurro

Yea. That is a thought. I did run the battery down by accident about two weeks ago too so that is definately a possibility.

breze84

I would check that out first...

Sticks n Stones

if it isn't the battery, my money is on the altenator. Had that happen two different times, one with a so-called '1 wire' high output altenator, and one with my '99 Suburban's altenator. But first, if you have ANY aftermarket equipment installed (amp, tuner, etc.) I would unhook it completely and see how it runs.

FYI on the altenator thing: the suburban altenator I took to the auto parts store and they checked it: it was still putting out the volts, but smelled bad and had a short.