LS had a spaz attack on the interstate.. Help please

[dunndarryn]

Hey guys, so again with my LS problems (unfortunately).. At this point I am completely stressed out with this car..

On my way home this evening I was on the interstate and noticed my radio flickering on and off... On and off... Off.... On... and so on.. Simultaneously, the ABS light turned on... then off... then on... then off... and then shortly after that, the check traction control light joined in... This happened on and off for a few minutes, then I noticed my lights were dimmer than usual.. After a few minutes of this, everything went back to normal for the remainder of my ride home (maybe 10-15 miles).

Also (for those who remember) I heard the weird sound coming from my passenger rear again and also smelled the smokey smell again for a few seconds..

Any ideas? Thanks in advanced! 2000 LS V8 for anyone who doesn't know.

 

[RigsLS]

I'm gonna go ahead and say, new Battery and Alternator (together).
Check all your wiring in the trunk, I bet it's coming from there.


~ This 'smokey smell' you speak of, are you familiar with electrical burning smells, is it like that ?


Check the battery terminals, check wiring going in and out on the power distribution box in the trunk,
throw a meter on the Alternator, see what it's running at on idle and while shut down.
Check ground terminals. You obviously have a electrical problem, could be from a run down battery.

Check everything, looks for something plastic that's melted down from heated wiring or something like that.

Look for bolted down grounds, check for corrosion. Tighten things down. any connections loose can be a problem.





Are you running large Subs & Amps in the trunk with the wrong battery ? Battery is vented ?

Look at the battery, there should be an eye on it, is it still green when you look down into it ?

 

[chris2523]

definitely alternator.
probably battery.

 

[dunndarryn]

I'm gonna go ahead and say, new Battery and Alternator (together).
Check all your wiring in the trunk, I bet it's coming from there.


~ This 'smokey smell' you speak of, are you familiar with electrical burning smells, is it like that ?


Check the battery terminals, check wiring going in and out on the power distribution box in the trunk,
throw a meter on the Alternator, see what it's running at on idle and while shut down.
Check ground terminals. You obviously have a electrical problem, could be from a run down battery.

Check everything, looks for something plastic that's melted down from heated wiring or something like that.

Look for bolted down grounds, check for corrosion. Tighten things down. any connections loose can be a problem.





Are you running large Subs & Amps in the trunk with the wrong battery ? Battery is vented ?

Look at the battery, there should be an eye on it, is it still green when you look down into it ?

Thanks! I am not sure if I could pinpoint an electrical burning smell, but it definitely wasn't rubber burning, it definitely wasn't the over heat smell, and it definitely WAS coming from the passenger rear...

For your question pertaining to my LS' spaz attack: No I'm not running subs, nothing aftermarket electronically on my car. I know I had something that my grandpa (a Volvo mechanic) could not identify.. He ended up rigging a switch so I shut off my battery everytime I'm not driving.. but it's been like this for about a year now, and this is the first of this happening..

 

[Upstairs Chris]

definitely alternator.
probably battery.

+1 on this.

Mine did the same thing minus the smokey smell. Turns out my 2006 had the stock battery in it when I bought it used in 2012. Yeah.....They paid for my new battery and alternator. The alt went bad because it was constantly trying to get the battery level back to where it should, but because the bat was bad it couldn't. Endless cycle.

Lights got dim, check traction control, check charging system, car would stall at idle. Once I turned it off, when I entered the car alarm went off in an unpredictable pattern, it tried to eject all my CD's and my moon roof kept venting. It was a nightmare.

Battery and Alternator. Good as new.

 

[Ranchero50]

Thanks! I am not sure if I could pinpoint an electrical burning smell, but it definitely wasn't rubber burning, it definitely wasn't the over heat smell, and it definitely WAS coming from the passenger rear...

For your question pertaining to my LS' spaz attack: No I'm not running subs, nothing aftermarket electronically on my car. I know I had something that my grandpa (a Volvo mechanic) could not identify.. He ended up rigging a switch so I shut off my battery everytime I'm not driving.. but it's been like this for about a year now, and this is the first of this happening..

A switch, really? Kudo's for grandpa but this isn't a '73 Biscayne dude.

Something is draining the battery... (probably from reduced internal resistance in a module)

Something is making the system alarms go off (probably from a low voltage condition as the module shorts out internally)

Something is smoking / smelling.

Something is going to be on fire before too long...

Your car is screaming at you to get your head out of the sand and figure out what's wrong. Driving down the road for a couple minutes with lights flashing and a funny smell is going to earn you an LS Darwin award.

 

[Andrizzle]

Open your spare well compartment and take photos...

This mysterious device probably has a hand in it.

Not to mention if you smell burning in the rear, something is burning in the rear. So take a look and see what it is/was.

 

[joegr]

You really need to get someone who knows what they are doing (with this modern highly electronic car) to look at it and fix it correctly. It will probably take a good dealer. I've seen cars burn from electrical fires. They burn to the ground quickly.

 

[LS4me]

You really need to get someone who knows what they are doing (with this modern highly electronic car) to look at it and fix it correctly. It will probably take a good dealer. I've seen cars burn from electrical fires. They burn to the ground quickly.

Whatever happened with the move to fiber optics? No electrical fires there!

 

[Ranchero50]

Fiber has it's own long list of problems... Oddly enough, the wire weight in the new cars is less than the '90's stuff with the comm lines and local power distribution boxes.

 

[LS4me]

Fiber has it's own long list of problems... Oddly enough, the wire weight in the new cars is less than the '90's stuff with the comm lines and local power distribution boxes.

Really??? I thought it was the wave of the future. Did the BUS "system" make it not cost effective?

 

[joegr]

Really??? I thought it was the wave of the future. Did the BUS "system" make it not cost effective?

The biggest problems with fiber in cars are that it's fragile, and there's no easy way to splice it or put new terminations on.

You still have to run power to the devices, along with the fiber. Why not just add a couple more small gauge wires instead (bus system)?

I know that BMW does or did at least use fiber for their high-end audio systems. Aftermarket support for those systems is pretty expensive, so most don't like that setup.

 

[tireman]

+1

Battery and alternator. check all fuses in the trunk. do not get a rebuilt ALT, it is a crap shoot on life span.

 

[LS4me]

The biggest problems with fiber in cars are that it's fragile, and there's no easy way to splice it or put new terminations on.

You still have to run power to the devices, along with the fiber. Why not just add a couple more small gauge wires instead (bus system)?

I know that BMW does or did at least use fiber for there high-end audio systems. Aftermarket support for those systems is pretty expensive, so most don't like that setup.

Thanks! Learn something new every day!

Back to our regularly scheduled discussion.......

My semi-educated guess is battery as that is where the battery lives.

 

[1LoudLS]

Car B Q = bad

 

[purevilpleasure]

Wait until the next car you have is all aluminum wire......