I posted this in the california thread, but wanted to see if anyone had any ideas.

The car has been running great, that is until we stopped for the night. After i started the car, the gas gauge dropped, the temp gauge dropped and the car started running rough when i accelerated. Gulp. I turned off the heater and it started running fine. I stopped at the hotel, where it is now dark and cold (about 20 or so) and looked into it some more. It appears my blinkers are not working either, and if i am driving and turn on the wipers, the engine starts stuttering.

So to sum it up. It runs fine if you do not turn on the heater or the windshield wipers. The radio turns on but the light is dim, and the turn signals and flashers don't do much of anything. The car has been running perfect up until this happened.

if i accelerate and turn on the wipers, the car sputters, the same thing happens if you turn on the heater. Not sure what to look at, but i looked under hood everything looks fine, and under dash everything is about the same as it was before.

any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

How does it start? Bad battery or charging system?
Oh yeah...20 degrees sounds good....going to 12 below 0 here tonite

 

starts right up without a problem. the gauge for battery shows a charge, so unless that gauge is broken, not quite sure, but it appears to be charging, the head lights work fine. I guess when the sun comes up i'll need to check the fusebox, as everything that seems to be giving me a problem goes through the fuse box.

Seems it only has trouble when radio, wipers, heater and blinkers are used. Is there a ground near the fusebox. I'm on the road, so my research is fairly limited.

 

IIRC the gas gauge and temp gauge are controlled by the constant voltage regulator behind the instrument panel....the other light probs may be headlight switch related...that's my best guess....but check the fuses first...good luck...I am enjoying your write up on the trip...keep on truckin'!!!!

 

The first thing that jumps out at me when I read those symptoms is the possibility of a bad body ground. If I am right the nagative terminal of the battery would need to be grounded directly to the engine, thereby producing the issue where the motor turns over fine, while lots of other stuff does not work right. If my theory were right, I would assume that the car ignition system would work just as good as the starter, unless you are running an aftermarket ignition that is grounded to the body,,,??

You might try runnig a "jumper from the neg terminal to a good body ground to check and see if this might be the issue.

The only other thing that comes to mind is that you might have an intermitant short in the big positive cable from the battery to the solenoid, or another large unfused positive cable or LARGE wire.

Watch out for that possible short, I had one like that that VERY nearly burned up one of my trucks and it would have if I wouldnt have come up withthree 10 pound extinguishers.

Good luck!!

 

problem solved. I rechecked all the wiring in the morning and found one of the wires that runs from the alt to the voltage regulator was loose. The nut was a little loose, so i tightened it and heater, radio and everthing got power. Turn signals came back on after a bit too, i think after it warmed up to 30+ degrees they started working fine. Had alternator checked, everything is good. So it looks like the culprit was a loose nut. Thanks for the advice last night and early this morning.

 

"So it looks like the culprit was a loose nut."

Film at eleven.

Glad your problem is solved.

 

At least it was not a loose nut behind the wheel