A few weeks ago i drove my car home, and shut it off. i went out later to move the car and it wouldnt start, so i assumed the battery had just died. Tried again later and it started fine. the next day, the car wouldnt start again, so i checked the battery and it is pushing plenty of power. I kept trying to start it, and all id get was the click from the starter and nothing else. Occasionally it will start about once out of every 20 times i try. SO now i thought it was the starter. I replaced the starter yesterday, and it fired up first try, i shut it off and tried again, and now it wont start again. Now i hear a buzzing and clicking noise coming from under the dash by the fuse box which leads me to believe its a relay.

Is this a problem that sounds like it could be caused by a bad relay?

Every time i get in the car and turn the key to on, everything powers up, and when it doesnt start, all the lights on the dash go out like they would if the car was turned off. The weird thing about that is, when i try it and it doesnt start, all the lights go out, but when i close or open the door everything turns back on. I figured that was because of the door acting as a ground.

So does this sound like a relay problem? or should I be looking into more advanced electrical issues? its really beginning to aggravate the hell out of me.

Also, if it sounds like a relay problem, which relay should i look into replacing? and can they be found at autozone or advance? and where exactly is it located under the dash?

 

so you hear a "click" at the starter? every time?

 

Check your main grounds, batt. terminal, batt. to chassis and chassis to engine grounds.

Remove the grounds, clean both contact surfaces, [cable and ground point] and reconnect making sure the connections are tight.

The reason you lose all power when you go the start is because a connection, [most likely a main ground] can not carry the load so the circuit opens, once you stop trying to start the load drops, [a lot] and the circuit closes, undo the grounds, clean them and reconnect and see what happens. 94

BTW "buzzing" relays is a sure sign of a grounding problem.