navy02ws6

iTrader: (4)

This has been driving me absolutely nuts since last winter. Car only does this when its 40 degrees or below outside.

Car is an 02 T/A 6 spd just under 100K on it now. Daily driver since new.

Let me begin by saying I am the original owner of my car, and it has never had anything other than a factory radio/speakers in it. No other aftermarket electronics of any kind either. In fact, I don't think there's a single spliced wire on the whole car other than the front DRL harnesses which I replaced (and properly soldered).

Car randomly loses all electrical power for about a second while driving, to the point where all gauges reset, all lights go out, the radio goes back to 1:00, etc. Engine loses power and will just about stall, but stays running through the power loss. Any time the car has the problem, it's accompanied by an electrical whine that I can hear through the speakers for the entire time I'm driving the car if the radio is turned on, and the whine increases with engine RPMs.

Have checked all the obvious things; battery is a 1 year old Bosch (also had this same problem with the old battery), alternator is original and has never had a problem (always puts out 12+ volts except for the second or so that the entire car loses power). Have checked the battery cables and terminals for corrosion, and have checked grounding points as well. Also had my work check the car over, which also found nothing.

Any ideas? Anyone else have this problem?

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Time for things to start breaking...


Sometimes cold wires will shrink in the cold and a slightly loose will go from connected to disconnected.


My guess is that it's the electronics in the alternator. The squeal would lead me to believe the same. There are electronic components in the alternator to keep this squeal from happening. Back in the day, before we got fancy FM radio, this noise was a big issue. (It presents itself worse on the AM band.)

navy02ws6

iTrader: (4)

Yeah, I get the cold/contracting thing. Bad connection somewhere, usually not bad enough to affect anything, but bad enough to cause problems when contracting.

If it were the alternator though, I would think that the battery would be discharging slowly with reduced voltage output on the voltmeter, and not the sudden complete lack of power as if someone had disconnected the negative battery cable and no power was getting anywhere. Or am I wrong?

It did it again this morning, but even stranger this time...got to work, turned the car off, and then immediately lost all power to everything (no int lights, no radio display, etc). Tried to turn the key again and got nothing at all in either the start or acc position. Then 30 seconds later, everything was back to normal and powered as if nothing had happened, without me doing anything. Car started right up, but idled rough for the first 15-20 sec like it does if the battery has been disconnected. This is the fist time that it's lost all power for any significant amount of time though.

JD_McKee22

I had this happen to me. The wire that's bolted to the back of the alternator was completely disconnected. Yours might just have a bad connection. Try taking it off and scrubbing the connection with a wire brush and put it back on nice and snug. Luckily I was only about 5 miles from my house cause it was dark and my headlights went out, whole car shut down in my neighborhood lol.

Mongoose350

iTrader: (1)

I had this issue with my old car. It was caused by an idiot mechanic that broke my exciter wire and just jammed the naked wire into the plug. Yours may have come loose or gotten melted by the manifold.

navy02ws6

iTrader: (4)

Turned out to be loose cables on the battery...which I had already tightened