Hello,
I've been having a couple issues with my car the past couple days. I'm not sure if they're related, but here they are:

Car not starting
It's been a handful of times now that my car just won't start and seems to have absolutely no power. The clock doesn't show anything, radio doesn't work...sometimes this happens when I turn the car off and then I can't get out because the doors don't unlock. Eventually (usually within 30 minutes but usually sooner), the power returns and the alarm will go off.

Yesterday, I tried to start my car but again no power, and didn't start until the battery connectors were cleaned (they were corroded). Worked fine for a bit. Today, the voltage was low (around 11 volts) when I tried to start my car. I switched out the battery thinking that was the issue, but it's still happening.

At some point the car starts after waiting a minute or two, but if I turn it off and then try to turn it on immediately after (to make sure I'm not stuck somewhere) it'll make no sound and not even try to turn over.

It hasn't happened for a while now, but sometimes it'll make a clicking sound and I'll lose power to my radio while driving. It's pretty unnerving. The clicking is back (though I don't lose power to my radio) which leads me to...

Clicking behind steering wheel/odometer area
I associate this sound to losing power...it's happened while driving and as mentioned above, I'll lose power to my radio. Whether or not my association is correct is TBD, but there it is. The past couple days the radio doesn't turn off, but the clicking still happens. It seems to be coming from behind the odometer area and sounds like a button is being switched. The click happens twice usually.


If anyone has experienced this, or know what it might be, I'd be very grateful to hear your opinion! Thank you!

 

Are you kidding me? You can manually unlock the door by lifting up on the lock, dumbass.

 

Clearly I can get out, but I was trying to do it WITHOUT the alarm going off, which I tried to explain here: "sometimes this happens when I turn the car off and then I can't get out because the doors don't unlock. Eventually (usually within 30 minutes but usually sooner), the power returns and the alarm will go off."

Granted, it wasn't very clear. Don't see the need to be a jackass about it, though.

Yes, my key fob normally turns the alarm off, but in these situations it doesn't happen reliably. And before you come up with any more smartass things to say, I'm just gonna tell you to **** off.

 

Sounds like a weird problem to me. One thing that came to mind is seeing if you have a short. I would disconnect my negative battery terminal and connect an ammeter between the negative battery terminal and the negative battery connector. Make sure the keys are out , everything is off (including dome and door lights), and see if there is any current flowing. If there is current flowing you can start pulling fuses one at a time until the current is zero. You have now isolated the bad circuit. That is the easy part. If you do have a short repairing or replacing wiring in a car is so much fun...NOT!

 

I was going to say alternator, but you say there is clicking behind the dash. Electrical problems are always a pain in the *** to track down. I would take apart the dash and see if you can find what wire is shorting out. Lots of wires back there, but your problem is behind that instrument cluster if you can clearly hear something clicking.

 

Recheck the battery leads to the battery, and follow them back to the the fuse box and the main ground to the body/transmission. If the battery connections were corroded the body/harness connections may also be dirty/corroded. Verify there are clean tight connections on both ends of the cables, and that the cables themselves are not corroded/failing.

Check your battery(yes I know it's been replaced) health. Even new batteries are not always 'good'. A battery that is 11.99 Volts is a dead battery, 12.4-12.6 is a good battery. Anything less and the battery is either discharged or dead. Have it charged and properly load/stress tested.
The cold will affect battery life/power as well. Getting down into the single digits will reduce the battery voltage a tenth of a volt, which with a 12.4-12.6 window, which can render a battery 'dead'.

The clicking you are hearing is probably the main relay. It is clicking probably due to low voltage or an intermittent connection. If battery voltage is fine then the ignition switch(electrical) could be worn out. This could be from a few factors. Heavy key chains, worn out switch(it happens), or IIRC some 98/99 models did have a recall due to a faulty ignition switch.

If you have several trinkets, charms, keys on your key ring this can pull on the ignition switch and cause it excessive wear. Next time you have this fault try jiggling the key to see if there is any change. Remove heavy key trinkets, excessive keys from the key chain.

If the jiggling works then it is most likely the ignition switch.