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Rough Idle and Dimming Lights

paulygp09

paulygp09

New member
I have a 95 GTP that will randomly run roughly especially at idle. When this happens all of the lights will dim and the gauges jump. At highway speeds it runs ok until I turn the headlights on then the gauges jump again and everything dims. I had a mechanic work on the car and he replaced the water pump, power steering, crankshaft sensor, and alternator so I know it's none of these. WHAT COULD IT BE?
 


paulygp09 said:
I have a 95 GTP that will randomly run roughly especially at idle. When this happens all of the lights will dim and the gauges jump. At highway speeds it runs ok until I turn the headlights on then the gauges jump again and everything dims. I had a mechanic work on the car and he replaced the water pump, power steering, crankshaft sensor, and alternator so I know it's none of these. WHAT COULD IT BE?
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Did you test your battery? (though, I still feel like it's a bum alternator)
 
no lol... i may have the battery and alternator checked just to be safe... maybe a bad ground somewhere could be the problem?
 


its wierd cuz sometimes it will start to turn over then stop about half a turn then when i try to turn it over again it will just click and it will do this 6-10 times before it will turn over again....
 
ok... today i drove the car again and when i used the turn signal the car would either die or every light on the dash would come on as well as the dinger and the doors would lock and unlock... come on guys and gals, someone has to know!
 


I gunna say its the battery or the alternator going bad. GO to a o riellys or autozone and have them run battery and alternator test. The alternator test should be done with the car on and battery with the car off. Im guessing maybe a diode is going bad and causing things to pull power away from certain things. But i could be wrong. So I would run those tests to see whats up.

or maybe one of the cables off of the battery conections is going bad too.
 
Fivefingerdeathpunch said:
or maybe one of the cables off of the battery conections is going bad too.
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That's the first thing I thought of when he said sometimes it will just randomly stop cranking (indicate abrupt loss of electrical power) when trying to start the car, and then would crank again if you turned the key. That's a pretty good indication that you either have a loose battery cable, or ground. My Turbo STE did the same thing once. Would give weird symptoms, and then just randomly shut down on me one day just before I got home. Popped the hood and wiggled the cables, and noticed the positive was a bit loose. Tightened it down, and never had a problem after that.

I almost always change the post bolts when I get a new batter, because they really weren't designed to be loosened and tightened several times. They only cost a few bucks to replace, which is nothing in exchange for the piece of mind they offer.
 
had a GM specialist check it out, it was something to do with the security system... basically everytime i would start the car the security would try to cut power and kill the engine
 
paulygp09 said:
had a GM specialist check it out, it was something to do with the security system... basically everytime i would start the car the security would try to cut power and kill the engine
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You can sleep easy at night knowing that a thief could only kinda drive your car.
 
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