Erratic idle, battery, gauges........ HELP
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 16
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Erratic idle, battery, gauges........ HELP 02 ss, basically stock ls1 with SLP lid, fan relay, and turn down exhaust. 2 days ago the car wouldn't start. Turning the key over changed absolutely nothing. No clicking, no turn over, nothing. Just sat dead in the drive way. I checked the terminals and they were secure. Attempted to start the car again, it fired up but ran horribly. It wouldn't idle without me holding the gas or feathering the throttle. But it wasn't running good and it kept backfiring so I turned it off. I sat puzzled for a minute or two, checked under the hood to make sure nothing was going to explode, then attempted to start it up again. I turned the key on and over and she ran fine. Like nothing was wrong. Advanced Auto Parts tested my battery, alternator and starter, with no problems found. Battery slightly low on charge but still putting out 12.69 volts and 530CCA. Car ran fine through the holidays then today, after sitting since 7pm yesterday, the battery is "dead" again. This time it clicks hard and rapid. Yet the clicks seem to be coming from the fuse box instead of the battery (opposite sides of the engine bay.) And each time after I attempt to start the car and I give up and stop holding the key over, the gauges (all of them) jump around. The SES light will be on and blink extremely quick once or twice and the speedometer will twitch from 0-1 mph at the same time. I'm at a loss. I'm more of a parts installer than a mechanic so any insight would be great! Thank you. 
Start with the ground circuits, clean, tighten all connections. Check to be sure all wiring is secure, clean, and not shorted to whatever. Check the fuses, plugs, etc, for corrosion. Same w/ the relays...
Since you don't do your own mechanical "stuff", it mite be good to have a "techy" do this, and include a volt drop test on the circuits...
Since you don't do your own mechanical "stuff", it mite be good to have a "techy" do this, and include a volt drop test on the circuits...
TECH Addict
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 2,428
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From: Las Vegas, NV
I had the same problem and it turned out that the battery cable terminal screws weren't making a solid connection with the battery. It was tricky to diagnose because it seemed like they were tight against the battery. I replaced the screws and no problems since. You can pull the stock ones out of the battery cable with a pair of vise grips. New ones were only a couple bucks. I got the replacements at a battery store but I bet any decent auto parts store would have them as well.
