drisin80

hi and thanks to everyone. hardly know where to begin--this saturday, i decided to get into the dash. i removed the top dash panel, the lower dash panel, removed the radio, pulled out the heater control unit, pulled the clock guage, and removed the airbags. after doing this, i figured that i would be able to see the wiring, and find where the smoke came from. also removed the glove box, and part of an alpine security system (possibly the valet switch???) which was installed by a previous owner, and i have no idea of how it is wired, or how to activate etc. after removing all of this i could get a good look at everything, and for the life of me, could find nothing amiss. i still could not get it out of my mind that i had no problems until reconnecting the battery. anyway-- i let the car sit for the night. when i was at wal-mart the next day getting groceries, it came to me to get a new battery, and for the 69 bucks or so, see what happened. i put the new battery in and --just like that -- had power to my car again. didn't have much time to do a complete check--but lights work, fan works, engine turns over but does not start(security system and airbags unplugged???). so it was the battery all along. do not know what happened. charged as usual--when i connected it to the charger it read about 20%, charged it at 2 amps, and checked the progress several times while charging until it was at 90%. this battyery is only about 3 mo old bought at auto zone. don't know much about batteries, but have been charging them all of my life (my father owns an auto body business, where i worked during my school years). i figure that there are only two explanations; either just a crazy battery, or the possibility that i reversed the polarity when charging. i don't even know if this is possible, except it would not explain the meter reading at the beginning of the charging phase. i wouldn't even think it would be able to connect the charger reversed without serious fireworks. at this point, it doesn't really matter. i am going to reconnect everything later this week, and see if everything is ok. i have a question regarding removing entirely the old alpine security system, as i have no information on it, and possibly installing a new one. any thoughts??? also, what may be keeping the car from starting??? oh well, i learned something about the dash of my car, and i would not have felt right without inspecting the wiring under the dash after the smoke that came from there. it is possible that i may have just done something stupid. won't be the first or the last time for that. will post progress, and again, thanks to everyone

jimq

Try jumping or switching out the DME relay as maybe it shorted out durnig the problem. Hope that is all it is!

Indycam

Somethings cooked . The smoke .

eddychan

Oh dear! I owuld not take the dash down as the first approach. I am so sorry but really what I meant was to check these items first becuase they would be powered up without starting/cranking the engine and I understand that you had the smell/smoke before starting the engine.

Did you not check the fuse box as the first attempt? the DMEs are the big black rectangle shape plug thingy inside your fuse box situated under the front hood below the window surround.

Check if they are okay and not smelly/burnt, if you have a hand book try to check all the relays in relation to the audio/alarm/climate control system as I mentioned , they are more likely the problematic area since you did not crank the engine yet. That was what I meant!

Now that I have a better picture and more likely that you charged the battery incorrectly or you have a daft battery( even if it is just three months old). I have my battery for over 4 years now and I often left mine over a period of three to four weeks and mine started every time without any problem. Check the battery with a meter, should read around 12.6 to 12.8V and when running /charging should go up to 13.4 to 13.6V roughly.

So I think you should check the 1. Battery, 2. the fuses, 3. the DME assuming that you did not crank the engine and engaged the starting motor at all.

Good Luck!

Eddy

Indycam

"Now that I have a better picture and more likely that you charged the battery incorrectly or you have a daft battery"
He charged the battery disconected . The smoke came out from under the dash when he reconected the battery .
A bad or dead or "crazy" battery would not cause smoke to come out of the dash .

"Oh dear! I owuld not take the dash down as the first approach."
Something under the dash has burnt , the smoke is a dead giveaway . I really advise finding what has burnt under the dash before anything else . Putting power into a burnt part is not a good idea . Nothing good can come from powering up a burnt part .

eddychan

I do not disagree with you and if could be kind enough to look at my my earlier post about charging the battery.

All I wanted say is to check the Battery, the fuse andf the realys first before taking the dash DOWN. Are you saying that we should take the dash down before checking any of them????

I am sorry if you think it that way and I have nothing to say.

Eddy

drisin80

looked in the streather manual about turning over and not starting, and decided to jump the fuel pump relay as described in that manual. so-- with the dash still torn apart i decided to take for a test drive to see if any systems were down. drove about 69 miles, checked everything out that i could and nothing seems amiss. ordered a couple more relays, and if everything continues to work i'll put her back together. maybe the stereo is fried and will need replaced-- good opportunity to upgrade. well-- we.ll see. thanks for the input. tom