I searched this forum extensively and found some possible culprits for my new problem, but I wanted to bounce it off you guys.

A few weeks ago my 96 wouldn't start, and when the key was in position #2 (on) I'd get crackling from the speakers (radio off), flashing of my gear indicator lights on the dash, flickering ABS warning light, etc. After much fussing I discovered what I thought was a simple bad connection for my negative battery cable. I wiggled it on the post, which set my alarm off, and when I got in the car started and ran fine. Figured that was it so cleaned the post and clamp, etc.

Fast forward to this week. Twice today while driving the dash started going nuts. The gauges jumped up and down, the lights flickered, the ABS light was on, etc. At one point they all went dead, but the car kept running (although not the smoothest idle). I figured it was the battery cable so I got out, with the car running, and tried wiggling it. No change. I then wondered if I had a bad engine ground, so I used a jumper cable to the block and grounded it, but no change. Still the light problem. I turned the car off and tried restarting. Dead as a door nail. No pulse. Nothing. Not even a solenoid click. After 2-3 attempts turning the key on/off it started right up fine (set off the alarm and reset my clock though). It ran fine for another 20 minutes and did the same thing.

So now a lot of things are going on in my head. It feels like an electrical/ground issue, but if it was that easy my attempts at block grounding might have helped. On my BMW these symptoms would point to my ignition switch (not the lock assembly, but the switch), but I don't know much about the innards of this van. I'm also reading here about a body control module (or something like that) that might be causing this.

Based on this, what do you guru's suggest? The top of my dash is out of the car at the moment (another story), so if I have to get in there and grab a module or something I can try that. It's at the point where I don't trust driving this van, even though it has not let me stranded in 10 years that I've owned it.

Thanks in advance

Mike

 

First thing to try is go out and get your self a battery post cleaning brush . With this get the battery post , both postive and negative shiney then take the brush part and clean the inside of the battery cables until shiney and then tighten the cables down till they will not move by hand . See if this helps , poor connections and grounds can make all kinds of wierd things happen.

 

Definately go the easiest route of pulling your battery connections, cleaning them real good and reconnecting them. From your description, it sounds like the problem would be at a common point for the starting system, dash lights, etc. That screams of a bad battery connection.

Also, being a 96, your dash is probably a bit brittle. Be careful pulling it (or installing it) as it may crackor break. Under no circumstances should you let someone pound on it to see if there is a loose wire or something.

 

Have you found the fix to this yet. I have nearly the same problem. Mine started with lights and gages flickering while driving , just a quick blip and nothing more. Then the alternator went out replaced it. About 3 days later seemed to loose all power to dash panel. but I still have the indicator lights above dash panel. Runs and drives fine just do not have any gages or lights in cluster. Have already tryed all the things that have been mentioned. Thanks for any and all help.

1996 GC SE
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