Wild electrical issues.. help [video][descriptive]

[Matt]

The reason I am posting is my 1995 Monte Carlo Z34 3.4L died while I was driving yesterday. At first it died at a light shortly after I turned on the radio and fan. I managed to start it again for but it died again 30 seconds later for good. The only signs of electrical life were brake lights and a little blinking dummy alarm LED on my dash. Tried jumping it, it would start but die as soon as the cable was removed… so its almost certainly alternator related.

I then charged the battery for an hour and jumped it (wouldn’t start without a jump, dashboard was unresponsive when ignition turned on), which was enough to get me home (15-20 minutes away). There was a constant (did not vary with RPM) squeal/grinding noise, audible when i was at idle (again possibly alternator, but not sure).

I charged the battery overnight, and it’s reading just under a 12v charge now. However, when I turn on the ignition I get nothing at all on the dashboard (no lights, door open sound cuts off, etc.) and starter wont crank at all (see video below). At one point I had the ignition on for several minutes as I was setting up my multi meter (I was touching my multimeter to the ground (black) terminal on my battery) and it finally came to life (all lights on dash working as expected) it probably would have started too, although I didn’t try.

I don’t even know where to go from here…

Other possible clues leading up to this event:
– Before leaving my house the turn signals were not working, but I had seen this happen before and had them act sporadically in the past (randomly working, not working, changing blink speeds, etc).
– Previous owner said they had to charge the battery regularly to get it started, I drove it 2 hours to my house no problem, but its sat all summer now and this is basically the first time I drove it since.
*** As I’m typing this it just dawned on me that this car has an ignition disabler installed only lets the car start when the right turn signal is activated. It’s highly plausible that this thing is malfunctioning and causing at least some of the issues I am experiencing.***

[video width=500 height=281 type=youtube]xGLCjgCNDwc[/video]

Topic

[college man]

You may need to disable the immobilizer. Is that factory or aftermarket?
see if this link helps.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-automotive-no-start-problems

[jason]

i would check all the ground wires on this car main ground ard body grounds i have ran into this before and it was a ground problem maybe this will help

[Matt]

I actually came to the realization that my battery may have fried after riding around with a dead alternator. I just assumed that when I charged it overnight it would be able to start the car, but that is most likely not the case. I will have it tested and find out.
I suspect that all the crazy electrical issues are just the result of a weak battery. I also read that the blinkers are often the first thing to go when a battery is dying, which would explain so much.

[Author]

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