thehatchninja

I just got my car on the road after a lot of headaches with the clutch and MC and what do you know it starts shutting off on me. I didn't know what was happening, the motor would just stop running for a second....which was especially scary while accelerating.
Anyway, finally it stopped running for good, and nothing would work at all. no lights/dashlights etc... When i popped the hood the battery was smoking, and the batt. cables were melting. I decided to put a new battery in it and when i started the car sparks came out of the starter. It was pretty scary. So i just had it towed to my house. now it's sitting there...again.

Any ideas what this could be. I'm thinking it might be a crazy alternator that's overcharging, but what should i have to replace

alternator
battery
cables
starter?

any help is appreciated

b16ahybrid

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thehatchninja &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">.. When i popped the hood the battery was smoking, and the batt. cables were melting. I decided to put a new battery in it and when i started the car sparks came out of the starter. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Gotta love that, battery smoking and the cables are melted so you toss another battery in and try it again. So then this happens....<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thehatchninja &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> put a new battery in it and when i started the car sparks came out of the starter. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Try looking for the short, It sounds like your electrical system has a short. A big short.

thehatchninja

well i was desperate to get it off of the side of the highway...

do you think i'll have to replace a lot of stuff, or just fix the short and put in new cables and battery

goodbyegti

the burnt wires are your friend, trace them back to where they first started and you'll get a big clue to wtf happened.. hopefully you'll have just burnt some wires out, its relatively unlikely that you'd get much damage to electrical equipment... could be starter motor solenoid gone wrong and shorted out as theres a lot of heavy cabling going to the motor, have you got a boot full of ICE? thick unfused +ve cables are always a risk if you lay them near the chassis...

yusoslo

wow! sounds like me this time last year (march 19th to be exact)

autozone sold me an alternator that put out 20.4 volts and fried my car

Im talkin ECU, HVAC, radio, wipers, ****** everything along with all of the wiring harnesses.

I wrote in to their claims dept and they said since I had a stereo (alpline 30x4 rms amp) that the stereo's power damaged the alternator

Thing was they dismissed my claim and I dont know what to do.

BTW the amp was out of the car at the time. These bastards, I should probably persure this again.

yusoslo

sorry for the thread hijack.

b16ahybrid

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by goodbyegti &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the burnt wires are your friend, trace them back to where they first started and you'll get a big clue to wtf happened.. hopefully you'll have just burnt some wires out, its relatively unlikely that you'd get much damage to electrical equipment... could be starter motor solenoid gone wrong and shorted out as theres a lot of heavy cabling going to the motor, have you got a boot full of ICE? thick unfused +ve cables are always a risk if you lay them near the chassis...</TD></TR></TABLE>

yep.
hopefully you can find the source and fix it along with the melted wires. Make sure you replace the wires so it doesn't happen again

thehatchninja

lol....um well there was a bolt laying on my starter power terminal...shorting it out....the bolt was fried. But i just charged my battery back up and it all works fine