Bad ground somewhere, maybe?

[LeSabreUltra]

Here's a new and somewhat annoying problem that has surfaced on my Buick lately.

If the car has been sitting a while it will do this. Most of the times I have noticed this issue it follows a pattern like this:

Unlock my car with keyless. Car lights up. Open the door, interior lights come on, security light flashes, everything normal. Put the key in the ignition and turn to "On". Interior lights fade out, headlights come on (if it's dark), all the little trouble lights on the dash light up and the fuel pump primes. All normal. Turn the key to "start" and all of a sudden CLICK and I'm in the dark. Lights are out, starter never moves, everything is dead. Ooh, fun! Turn the key to off, and back to start, and it fires right up without any issues and runs fine the rest of the night, day, or whatever.

Then today I go to take a before picture of my headlights before I finally get the HID kit I bought a year ago wired up. Unlock the car, it lights up, open the door, interior lights etc....then I turn on the headlights and everything is dead. Great! Shut the door, open it again, interior lights are on, hit the headlight switch, it dies again. Shut the door again, open it, lights come on, turn on headlights and this time everything stays lit.

What's up with that?
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[Jrs3800]

Check the door sill grounds and make sure they are good.. also check all of the fuses in the Maxifuse Relay center for any corrosion...

Start there and see where it leads you..

[imidazol97]

If the car has been sitting a while it will do this. Most of the times I have noticed this issue it follows a pattern like this:

Start with basics. Check the connections at the battery cables an the other ends of each looking for corrosion. Take the two positive cables apart and check between them. Also twist around some on the battery terminal itself looking for a crack in the connection to the battery itself.

It could be wear and burnt contacts in the ignition switch down on the column that slides to make various contacts to operate the car in ON and then START and ACC.

Because it happens after sitting either of those could be a culprit--along with the grounds mentioned before. But I'm not sure the grounds would affect the starter.

You've added some HID headlights? Any chance you've done something to affect the system or at least the draw?

[LeSabreUltra]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Ground buses near the door sills are good, like new. Maxifuse relay center also checks out, as did the negative battery terminal. Positive battery terminal had a small amount of corrosion on the bottom terminal, I don't know if it was enough to cause all this, but I cleaned it up good with a wire brush anyway. We'll see if that helps.

You've added some HID headlights? Any chance you've done something to affect the system or at least the draw?

I don't think so. It was doing this before I even started playing with the HID kit.

Also, I don't think it's the ignition switch. It did it once yesterday just when I turned the headlights on. The keys weren't even in the ignition, and the HID kit was not connected. Just the stock headlights.

Maybe the little bit of corrosion on the positive terminal was it, I hope so. I'll know for sure when I try to start it tomorrow night.
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[spoiledred94]

Definitely a electric problem. Good you cleaned up the maybe bad pos terminal. I hope that's it.

All of your lights are at one time or another controlled by your PCM so maybe a swap out from a junker ($25) would be another avenue as unlikely as it seems. Hope this helps

[mntnbkr]

How old is your battery? You might want to have it tested to make sure there's not a bad cell or some other problem with it.

[LeSabreUltra]

Battery is three years old, NAPA battery.

Well, it started fine and had no issues tonight! It's hard to believe that little bit of corrosion could do all that, but I guess electricity is a weird thing. I'll be keeping an eye on it.
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[ChilinMichael]

My car was doing similar, go to start and would just completely go dead then come right back on and start on second try...it was battery terminal corrosion.

[Bugsi]

I've had symptoms like that before.
One time it was a bad battery terminal connection.
Another time the battery case had cracked in a neat circle around the positive pole. When I went to investigate it and tugged on the cable, the terminal flopped out and acid began running out of the ensuing hole. (Nice, huh?)
With slightly different symptoms I had very bad corrosion of the positive cable inside its otherwise-new-looking insulation.

The best insurance against this type of problem:
Make sure your battery is in good working order.
Make sure your charging system is in good working order.
Make sure your battery cables are in good shape.
make sure the battery terminals are nice and shiny with no corrosion.

Sounds to me like you already fixed it.

[ptrfair]

Just to add my 2 cents....My 97, if i lock it, the car locks and arms itself, and then for five minutes the lights will stay on at night, then decide to go off. Had that ever happen to you? It did it tonight, where is the brains of the electric located in the car? A while back the car would shut off but the blower motor would continue to run (with the key out of the ignition too)

[Bugsi]

My 97, if i lock it, the car locks and arms itself, and then for five minutes the lights will stay on at night, then decide to go off.

You do know about the delayed lights off feature, right? Turn the ring around the headlight switch to change the length of time the lights stay on after turning off the car. The shortest time is just south of the "click" at around 1 or 2 o'clock on the ring. You're probably rotated somewhere closer to 5 or 6 o'clock on that ring.

(The blower staying on sounds like a problem, though.)

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

Or on the Buicks, slide the Twilight Sentinel to Min. That should get rid of the lights staying on.

OT: How are the HID's working for you now that you have the harness?