Thread: Electrical gremlins

A couple of questions. Penny is being a little quirky lately. When stopped in drive with the foot on the brake, the voltage will drop a bit, the car will shudder, the RPM's drop to about 500 and the lights dim. This only happens when the engine is up to operating temperature and ALL of what I mentioned happens in about the span of 2 seconds. I wrote this off as normal since a friend's Bonneville also does this sometimes, but his is VERY rare compared to mine. Penny does this between 2-4 times at every stop light. Tonight, however, it was weird because I came to a stop light which I know is a long one, so I put her in neutral and went to look for a CD. Then, the voltage dropped to below 14, the lights all dimmed, and it would only return if I gave her some gas and then it would drop again. However, upon driving for 5 more minutes, the issue did not repeat. Any ideas from you guys? I've been told elsewhere that 3800's do not like Taylor spark plug wires. I've been told that they could be causing this. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

*EDIT* I recently installed a ZZP voltage booster and it didn't help nor cure the problem. It changed nothing. But I have since removed it just in case.

Fordy... I know where he may have heard bad things about Taylors..lol Taylors aren't going to cause this issue.

Mods on the car and what makes that Bonneville so extrordinary?

First off.. voltage drop below ~600rpm is programmed into your pcm. Your pcm tells the alternator to turn off, this makes you run off the battery and well..you get it.

Now .. let's solve the why. If you are cammed and your idle is set low.. that can make the iac work more based on a funky idle that the iac would need to try and solve for. I've seen guys drill a small hole in the tb plate to counter act this..I've seen others VE tune to correct it.

If you aren't cammed..this might be as simple as a tb cleaning.

ive seen the the whole drilled method before, but bill how can we program the battery saver mode out of it?

DHP can.

What about HP Tuners?

And Bill, do you mean my buddy's Bonneville? It's got an 01 SSEi with a Plog and DP. A beginner's tune is on it too. (No tq mgmt, changed shift down points, etc.) I don't think he touched anything besides that.

Penny's mods are mentioned in the siggy. No cam. She's always had the battery saver "tremor", ever since I remember first driving this thing 4 years ago. To me it is very annoying, and it only recently became as frequent as it is. Or maybe it's my hockey puck mount that is amplifying the issue.

Your pucking right...lol kidding. The pucks are only making you feel it better.

Have you ever cleaned the TB? Sounds a bit like a sticky or not fully functioning IAC. Unless you have a large vacuum leak, causing it to want to stall. I doubt the vac leak though.

Hahahahaha. I thought so. But sounds good Bill. I'll go buy a bottle of TB cleaner and go crazy in there.

Take it off.. bring an old tooth brush. You'll be there a while.

On the other side of things. Your car shouldn't be idling that low. In gear should be at least 750RPM commanded.

She idles anywhere between 650 and 700 when in gear. (according to the tach)

Also, I don't know if you can help me with this guys, since I don't know how related Grand Prixs are to Bonnevilles, but my interior fan is being wacky. It rarely wants to turn on. When it does, the fan speed drops when I hit the brakes. I can hear the door actuators working and clicking even when it isn't working. Thanks for all your help guys.

Actuators do move. Based on where the temp is set.. they are ready for when you say go.

Blower..voltage is reduced and you said you were having issues when stopped...so sounds like expected at the moment.

After delivering a swift kick to the general area where the blower motor sits, it works again. Loose connection? I gotta get in there. Anyways, throttle body is being cleaned up later today. We'll see what happens. Might replace the O2 sensor since HPT is showing it to be all over the place.

You may want to learn about what an O2 sensor should read before you buy another one. Since I just saved you at least $50, you can paypal $20 to me for some beer. Deal?

thats a hell of a deal if ya ask me

Originally Posted by BillBoost37

You may want to learn about what an O2 sensor should read before you buy another one. Since I just saved you at least $50, you can paypal $20 to me for some beer. Deal?

Dont forget about the time he would have spent changing it... I think thats worth another 10.

Sent from my Droid

I'm not looking to gouge him guys... geez.

Woah woah woah! That escalated quickly! Good thing I don't live near you Bill. You'd be getting beer everyday. -____-

I let a friend borrow my HPT interface so I'm sitting pretty in the mean time. However, I made this for everyone's viewing pleasure.

Then...you learned about the O2, cause my paypal didn't receive beer money. I'll check it again...

Lol Bill. Any other kinda favor I can do for you that doesn't involve beer or money? :P

TB cleaning did the job. Thanks a lot.

Not from Chicago. I'll put you down for an IOU. Good?