Need Help, car has a mind of its own!

[95TransAm]

Okay, this is gonna be lengthy, but I want to try and be a thorough as possible for a better diagnosis. So my car has been running beautifully lately, then 2 nights ago, as I’m turning off my headlights, my drivers side headlight comes down, and I can still hear the motor going, it’s definitely still getting power. So I pop them up again, and then down and the same result, so I disconnected my light real quick so It wouldn’t get power. I let the car sit a bit, and I had to drive it again. So I go out, reconnect my light, start the car, no probs. Right before I get home, all of a sudden it was like there was a power surge in my car. My clock reset, and my brake light goes on (even though the brake felt the exact same) and my traction control goes off. I pressed the button, and it still wouldn’t go back on though. So I go home, park it, and when the lights came down, the noise started with my headlight again, and stopped after about 5 seconds. So I let it sit for a couple minutes, then started it back up to see if my brake light was still on and whether or not I could control my TCS. Well, everything went back to normal when I started it, except for the fact that it took about 4 or 5 seconds or so to turn over, and then it idled at like 600. I gave it a lil gas, and it came up to around 850 900ish. So I shut it off, disconnected my light once again for the fear that it might possibly come on again and drain my battery. (It was making that noise also both when the car was on and off by the way). So yesterday, I drove my car with the light disconnected during the day, and everything seemed fine. Then later on, I reconnected it, popped up my lights which took 2 times by the way, the first time I flipped the switch both of them didn’t come up, but the second time they did, and drove off. I went to the store, and on my keychain, my unlock button deactivates my alarm, and my lock activates it, so I left the light connected and hit the lock button. As my alarms set, the grinding noise came for those 5 seconds and were then gone. When I came out of the store, the same thing happened as I unlocked my doors with the noise. I sit in my car, and start it up, and it was the same as the night before with the sluggish start and low ideling. I gave it a lil gas, let it sit, rpm’s came up a bit, so I started on my way. Within 30 feet of my space, my car just completely died out and changed the time again. I started it back up and it was fine. I parked it at my friends, disconnected the light, cuz it seems it was starting up sluggish when it was still reconnected, and shut off my car. About an hour later, I go back to it, and try starting it with the light disconnected, and it wont start. It wouldn’t even crank, there was no power whatsoever. So I reconnect the light, and it started up, sluggish again. Throughout this tho, my alarms were going kinda crazy as well. Get back in the car, and the time is off again. Drive it for a bit, and park it. About 2 ½ hours later its time to leave. Go to my car, and reconnect the light first, then I try and start it. It cranked but wouldn’t turn over, and after that, it was like I hit a kill switch. My little red light for my alarm was blinking on and off and was making this real quiet siren type sound when I had my light switch all the way to the left (off) or if I tried starting it. So now my car is completely dead, even my interior lights won’t go on, not with the doors open, not hitting the switch, nothing. So I pop the hood, and try to get it to start doin different things. Tryin to disconnect the light then start, tryin to connect it and start, nothing. So I figured that ill just disconnect my battery, and hopefully reset everything and try again. So as im disconnecting my batter, my alarms start going off like crazy (at this point my car showed no signs of life for like 20 mins) so I fully reconnect my battery, and hop in my car. Once again, I get that same low siren sound, and my interiors don’t work as well, but, this time, I could pop up my lights (took 2 times again though just as everytime it did since 2 nights ago). So I popped my lights, and she cranked for about 5 seconds then turned over. Like about a block before I get home, she had a small backfire, the first ive ever heard come from it. Came home, parked it, haven’t touched it since. I’m not the electrical genius here, so don’t make fun of me too bad, but I believe it would be the headlight relay switch ? that sends the power to the headlight, but I cant see how something like that could cause all of this!!! Keep in mind that all this started with my headlight 2 nights ago. I’m clueless, any thoughts at all would be greatly appreciated! By the way, I have a 95 T/A a4, rebuilt beefed up tranny with a higher stall, 160 hypertech thermo, Moroso CAI, march underdrive pulleys (just alternator, haven’t rented a puller to put the crank on yet), and tomorrow ill be getting a hypertech ecu programmer III. Thanks guys for reading, hope I didn’t bore ya too much!

[Benm109]

Wow! I think you just wrote the most thorough thread ever!

Anyway, I am by far no 4th gen expert, but I do have some suggestions. If your car key has a little pellet resistor, clean it (I think with rubbing alcohol, IIRC). Check all of your grounds and check for any loose wires under the hood. And, I'm not sure if this could mean anything or not, but something about just have an alternator underdrive pulley on makes me wonder, but I don't know (I know there is a large debate about underdrive pulleys, if they work or not or if it will mess up your car or not).

Hopefully some 4th gen guys can help out more than I can. Good luck!

[Negotiator]

Ghostbusters!! No, umm, definitely check for loose or crimped wires. could you have gotten something wet? ive heard cars can go psychotic if water gets in somewhere it shouldn t (HA! heard? ive seen!) Good luck

[95TransAm]

Im pretty sure its not my key, but ill clean it off just to make sure. I too was thinking the pulley, but i know someone else with a 4th gen with underdrive pulleys and he hasnt had a prob. I was thinking thinking that it possibly might be my opti. I changed the thermostat last week, but i put rags all over the place to soak up the little bit of coolant that comes out and I'm 99.9% sure that i didnt get any on my opti, but there always is that possibility Ugh, the love hate relationship i have with my car puts all of my ex's to shame!

[TraceZ]

I think your headlight gear is stripped. You can remove the gear and flip it around so it uses the teeth on the other side.

It sounds like you have other problems too, but lets take it one thing at a time.

[Coop '02Z]

Everything you described sounds like dirty connections on your battery terminals. Remove them both and clean them with a wire brush then try again. The battery may be low now too because it won't charge very well if the connections aren't good.

Sounds like new gear time for the headlight too.

[Dave M]

I agree 100% with Coop. SOund slike the symptoms of off/on power from the battery caused by a bad/dirty connection. Clean your terminals real good, tighten the connections down as hard as you can, and check the wries for wear. As he said, it may need a good recharge now, or even replaced. Headlight gear is likely stripped too.

One thought, though. The pulley for the altenator is designed to speed up the alt so it puts out the proper voltage with underdrive pulleys on. If you have only that pulley on, the alt will spin faster than designed, likely putting out a different charge than normal. For those guru's out there, could this have caused his problems? Maybe an overcharge? Or accessories running on a higher voltage than designed? I don't know, just throwing it out there to see if someone will comment on it.

[95TransAm]

That's exactly what i was thinking about the alt. pulley, that it possibly was the catalyst of all this. When i get the crank on tomorrow i'll see then too. I'm not sure on this one, but isn't there a cutoff though on how much voltage is produced. Like even if im putting too much out, dont the computers allow only so much. I'm honestly not sure on that though. We'll see, it looks like some trial and error and i'll just go from there.
Thanks for all the input guys

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

Your voltage regulator will take care of any extra voltage put out by overspinning an alternator unless it is spinning so fast it is really putting out a lot and at the same time, the car is using excessive amps, then the regulator might be damaged or go into thermal runaway or stop regulating, etc. Your system is an excited field type, so it kind of controlls the output based on demand so as not to use up energy and make heat. I don't think this will happen with any available setup. The worse that will usually happen is that the alternator can't keep up and the battery gets drained - like guys with a giant stereo...

Just check the alternator by putting a dc voltmeter on the battery when the car is running with the ac & lights on (battery charged) and see if you get 13.8-14.2VDC or so, then you should be fine. Also measure your battery with everything turned off and look for 12.6V or greater. Any less than that and you are discharged or lost a cell.

like the other guys said - you have 2 problems. A bad battery/bad ground/bad cable and a bad headlight motor gear which is stripped.

[95TransAm]

Well all it turned out to be were those exact two things. I had no idea that a battery cable that was literally 2 turns out of where it needed to be would cause all of that. And as for the headlight, it was a stripped gear, i just dug in and used the other half, works fine now. Thanks again guys for everything