Electrical Loosing all electrical power intermittently?

GSXR1216

Founding Member
Jun 12, 2001
735
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ROCHESTER, NY
So i made a post a few weeks ago about my car misfiring randomly, it was only maybe a 1/2 second to a second or so, found a bad ACT sensor and thought maybe i was good now. Well took the car out yesterday and it seemed to be running great again and after maybe 20 minutes of driving i pull out onto a nice stretch of road and punch it runs great and as soon as i grab 4th it more or less shuts off, starts misfiring, tach is going up and down rapidly like its having a heart attack then after 3-4 seconds it runs fine again like nothing happened. I have also installed a AFR gauge since the car started acting up since i didnt know if i had a ignition or fuel issues to begin with, anyway when it acted up i looked down at the AFR and it was rebooting so now i know its and electrical issue. The AFR is powered from a tapafuse in the fusebox so I'm loosing i would assume all power to the car (or at least the fusebox and ECM) when it does this but it comes right back on pretty rapidly and runs fine again? We hit the next U turn and decide to head home since the car might really die now since it never did it this long before usually it was 1/2 a second it would act up, there is this one bridge i go over and it has a pretty big dip on and off it, hit the first dip and the car misfires/dies again for 1/2 a second, runs fine going across the 200' bridge, hit the dip getting off the bridge car again misfires/dies for 1/2 a second then runs normal again the rest of the way home. All of this points to some random electrical loss in my mind that somehow is related to bumps or a jerking motion in the car.

So after doing some research i found the ignition switches on these are known to be bad, made sense to me with the symptoms i saw so i went after that, the switch had no play in the crimps, it was totally tight. Since i had it apart anyway and the switch was cheap i decided to take it apart, looked like new inside, no signs of any "sparking" on and off like a bad connection would have. Put in a new switch and while i haven't test drove it again yet i really doubt this is the issue since the switch looked like brand new inside and had zero play in the casting to plastic housing crimps, and there is only 14,000 miles on the car so the switch has not seen much use in reality.

I started looking over all the wiring by the starter solenoid after looking at the wiring diagram of the car since that is where everything happens and i was hoping to find something loose, rubbed through, ETC and everything looks good, all connections are tight and corrosion free (car has only seen rain once in its life) nothing looks burned up. looked at all the wiring around the steering column, again no signs of rubbing, or anything else abnormal. Had the wife get in the car and turned it to run (key on engine off) and started shaking, pulling, twisting alll the wiring i could by the left shock tower and nothing made the dash warning lights flicker on and off and the AFR guage stayed on without rebooting? What else is there that would kill power to the ECM and fusebox intermittently that i could look for next? I wish the thing would just totally die then i would be able to start chasing circuits to see where the power loss occurs and narrow this down.......
 
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So i made a post a few weeks ago about my car misfiring randomly, it was only maybe a 1/2 second to a second or so, found a bad ACT sensor and thought maybe i was good now. Well took the car out yesterday and it seemed to be running great again and after maybe 20 minutes of driving i pull out onto a nice stretch of road and punch it runs great and as soon as i grab 4th it more or less shuts off, starts misfiring, tach is going up and down rapidly like its having a heart attack then after 3-4 seconds it runs fine again like nothing happened. I have also installed a AFR gauge since the car started acting up since i didnt know if i had a ignition or fuel issues to begin with, anyway when it acted up i looked down at the AFR and it was rebooting so now i know its and electrical issue. The AFR is powered from a tapafuse in the fusebox so I'm loosing i would assume all power to the car (or at least the fusebox and ECM) when it does this but it comes right back on pretty rapidly and runs fine again? We hit the next U turn and decide to head home since the car might really die now since it never did it this long before usually it was 1/2 a second it would act up, there is this one bridge i go over and it has a pretty big dip on and off it, hit the first dip and the car misfires/dies again for 1/2 a second, runs fine going across the 200' bridge, hit the dip getting off the bridge car again misfires/dies for 1/2 a second then runs normal again the rest of the way home. All of this points to some random electrical loss in my mind that somehow is related to bumps or a jerking motion in the car.

So after doing some research i found the ignition switches on these are known to be bad, made sense to me with the symptoms i saw so i went after that, the switch had no play in the crimps, it was totally tight. Since i had it apart anyway and the switch was cheap i decided to take it apart, looked like new inside, no signs of any "sparking" on and off like a bad connection would have. Put in a new switch and while i haven't test drove it again yet i really doubt this is the issue since the switch looked like brand new inside and had zero play in the casting to plastic housing crimps, and there is only 14,000 miles on the car so the switch has not seen much use in reality.

I started looking over all the wiring by the starter solenoid after looking at the wiring diagram of the car since that is where everything happens and i was hoping to find something loose, rubbed through, ETC and everything looks good, all connections are tight and corrosion free (car has only seen rain once in its life) nothing looks burned up. looked at all the wiring around the steering column, again no signs of rubbing, or anything else abnormal. Had the wife get in the car and turned it to run (key on engine off) and started shaking, pulling, twisting alll the wiring i could by the left shock tower and nothing made the dash warning lights flicker on and off and the AFR guage stayed on without rebooting? What else is there that would kill power to the ECM and fusebox intermittently that i could look for next? I wish the thing would just totally die then i would be able to start chasing circuits to see where the power loss occurs and narrow this down.......
quick and easy start would be replace the TFI... always carry a spare.and the tool.. trust me , i know...
 

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TFI wouldnt cause me to lose power inside the car to accessories. its electrical related to something in the wiring. took it for a drive today it did the same thing 3 more times and one of them was on the exact same bump on the exact same bridge as yesterday.
 
TFI wouldnt cause me to lose power inside the car to accessories. its electrical related to something in the wiring. took it for a drive today it did the same thing 3 more times and one of them was on the exact same bump on the exact same bridge as yesterday.
A bad ignition switch might....
 
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I believe the fuse box gets its power from the starter solenoid on the driver inner fender via fusible links. I would start by checking them to make sure they are good. There have been instances where they have caused intermittent issues. See this thread:


Other possibility is a bad ground which can be found with a voltage drop test.

 
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Pulled all the wires off the hotside of the starter solennoid to inspect better, all wires look perfectly fine, tugged/pulled on all the fuseible links no rub marks on anything i looked at. Drove it with the new ignition switch in place after checking those other wires, same issues are present with the car. Same bridge same temporary loss of power.....
 
Have you removed your battery terminals, cleaned them and the battery posts, then tightened them down good??
While your at it how old are your battery cables?? They could be corroding inside .....
 
ECU ground is behind the battery. You need to get the wiring diagrams for the dash harness and check all the grounds on the affected circuits if you are confident on the 12V+ side of things.
 
I would first look into the circuit you wired the afr gauge into, then I would make sure its electrical cutting, try to duplicate it with the lights or radio on see if either cut out... The tach going nuts is common when there's a just an ignition issue that can act like your losing power
 
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if not mentioned already, check the pins on the Salt & Pepper shakers. Those connections are notorious for getting loose and causing all sorts or problems. Use a small pick to ensure a tight fit and use dielectric grease for good connectivity. You can also use a DVOM and a wiring diagram to check voltage/continuity at each connection. All of the gauges and most relays, sending units, run through the wiring to and from them. If you have the S&P jumpers that were the TSB "fix", remove them- they are just two more points of potential failure.
 
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Pretty sure the mystery has been solved!

The car has a trunk mounted battery so i decided to make sure the + cable had not begun to rub through anywhere even though it feeds through grommets where it passes through metal. Sure enough i find one of the tail pipes had shifted and rubbed/burned right into the positive battery cable. I know i could fit my hand between the pipe and cable when i put the tailpipes on a few years ago so something obviously shifted since then. Anyway got the pipe back where it is supposed to be and repaired the cable and took it for the longest drive of the year, grabbed some gears several times and it never missed once, went over the infamous bridge and it never missed a beat. I'm going to tack weld that tailpipe to insure it does not come loose again and cause this issue again since it was also rubbing on the hard fuel line also when it shifted.

Thanks everyone for all the potential ideas on what it could be!
 
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