My New Toy :) and.. HELP!

[BoostinMR2]

First of all, people that have seen my car in my vBGallery will see this and be like 'wtf happened?' yea.. i'll explain it one of these days.. maybe later on tonight.. but right now, im still at work [10pm] and i dont really have time. Lets just say it involved the rain, bald tires, too much power, the woods, launching, stone walls, trees, and .. spaceships.

So after wanting this exhaust for well over a year.. i finally got it, courtesy of Shelby, aka Blitz2 on this here board. Personally, i love the look of the Nurspec. Lots of people have been downing me due to the fact that i took out the dual tip exhaust, and put in a single.. but man oh man is this thing sweet. Its SO LOUD!



Unfortunatly.. its maiden voyage wasnt too wonderful. Due to a little something something that happened about 2 months ago, my electrical system has been.. mm.. compromised. I'll explain this in a little bit. The car has been off the road since this incident, on jackstands. Last night, i took it off to put this exhaust on.. put the rear wheels on.. lowered it, moved it, lifted it, exhausted it.. all was fine. it was running, since i 'fixed' the problem, there hasnt been any issues.. till today.

Today was its first voyage out of the yard/driveway and onto the road since the initial incident which took it off. Lets just say it wasnt a fun time. First there was a battery light.. tightened the battery, went away.. took off.. jerking, slamming, sputtering, no power, power, no power, etc. Weird sounds.. i finally pull over to see wtf was going on. I figured, hey, maybe the exhaust wasnt totally tight.. and its hitting something.. no dice, real tight. so i got back in to go again.. wont start. batterys completely dead. weird.. since i had been starting it fine for days now. call my dad, he comes and jumps me.. starts right up no problem. i start going again.. more bucking.. i say 'screw this' and i head home.... turn around.. 100 feet down the road.. THE DRIVERS REAR WHEEL FALLS OFF MY CAR. Now, i had this thing tightened down like CRAZY last night. tell me how 4 [yes, i was missing one] lugnuts.. come off at EXACTLY the same time. i think it was sabotage! all of a sudden my whole rear end just goes crazy.. and i hear nasty grinding.. i pull over.. get out. i look under, dont notice anything.. both tires are fine [bald, but fine..] i had thought i blew a tire. thats when i noticed the bolt that holds the balljoint to the a-frame thingy there, was gouging my rim. wtf? All 4 lugnuts were still in the holes... and the wheel just fell off the studs, got caught, and rolled with the car. i was lucky.

fixed it.. got back in.. dead battery again. jumped again.. when i got to my house, it was so dead, the tach wasnt even working. nohtin gwas working except the motor, which shortly thereafter died. wtf is going on. It randomly has full power.. then totally nothing.

-----

Incident: One day, i walked out to my car in my driveway on fire. yep, 8:10am, and my car is ON FIRE, in front of my house. why you ask? i had remote started it.. but little did i know, i had lost my main ground from my transmission to the chassis... so all the current went through my ebrake cables and speedo cable, turning them bright red hot, melting the protective sleeves, and igniting them. needless to say, fire extinguisher, 8:10am, me.. bad way to start a wednesday. So, its been on jackstands for 2 months while i contemplate what i wanted to do with it.. as it hadnt really been reliable. I tightened the grounds back down, and it finally started again, and has been since.... I think i need to take them all off, grind them down to fresh metal, and replace them with larger gauge grounds. Project for tomorrow. I think THEN it might be fine. I'll update then.

[Supersprynt]

Lets just say it involved the rain, bald tires, too much power, the woods, launching, stone walls, trees, and .. spaceships.

Incident: One day, i walked out to my car in my driveway on fire. yep, 8:10am, and my car is ON FIRE, in front of my house.

Huh? You crashed it, then it was on fire? It caught fire, then crashed it...? So confused.

[BoostinMR2]

two seperate incidents. the "Incident" = "Due to a little something something that happened about 2 months ago, my electrical system has been.. mm.. compromised. I'll explain this in a little bit."

... The "Lets just say it involved the rain, bald tires, too much power, the woods, launching, stone walls, trees, and .. spaceships." Happened before the fire.

May 15th, 2005. Coming home from purchasing 800$ in stereo equipment that was sitting in my front trunk.. i come around a corner on brand new pavement... rear tires were a bit bald, and it had just started to sprinkle, so the pavement was VERY oily/greasy, and then the thin sheet of sprinkle rain. Came around the corner doing the speed limit [doesnt happen often.. but i knew this corner was bad.. so i figured speed limit speeds would be pretty decent for the conditions]... and they would have been, if the tires werent so effing bald. Road dipped, rear end just let go. corrected enough as to not flip the car when i hit the embankment.. launched over the embankment into the woods.. through a stone wall, hitting 3 trees midair. Then in turn spinning 90 degreesish, hitting anohter tree with my rear bumper, sliding down, and resting in the woods. The spaceship part you're wondering about... Now, i was sitting there, looking straight up in the air. The front of hte car had lodged itself into the trees, and the rear end fell.. i was stuck in between 2 trees like  |\| that. [ps im the "\" and the "|" are the trees.] ... while the tow truck driver pulled me out, we totally effed the sideskirts [on the stonewall].. the rear bumper was all cracked and broken from the car sitting on it.. the front lip .. hahaha yea, what front lip?! it was in 80 peices, the front fenders were all caved in equally on both sides at the same point [weird??], and the drivers floor was pushed up by the stonewall. no damage to the frame [thank god].. and my brand new motor only got a few small dents/scratches on the exhaust and oil pan. I didnt claim on my insurance, but they raised it 700$/year for my 'at fault' accident. after much fighting/screaming/swearing at the cop.. he wrote 'road conditions' as the fault of the accident. man did i get screwed! Needless to say, most of the audio was then returned [no damage, yay!] to pay for the tow, insurance, and subsequent parts costs. Thank god i do all my own work!

anyway, i took the opportunity as a chance to do some much needed bodywork, which has yet to be finished.. but im getting there. soon enough.

clear things up?

[laz]

Wow , your car was so shinny and beautiful! :brick: :eek: Sorry to hear all that has happened to it. If you need to reground your car, and need to get wire and terminals cheap, then we have used this guy before: www.darvex.com

They carry good quality battery terminals, 4 gauge wires, and interconnects for cheap. And no I don't get anything if you buy from them, they are just very nice, and their service rocks. That goes for anyone else that needs stuff that he carries, very good shop.

GL with your project, and keep us updated.

X

[Don Fusskinrolla]

you stated yourself what the problem is....

you got a remote start.  I hear on the grape vine that after time, a remote start will mess with the electrical system of a car.  That's mostly the main reason why I don't plan to install one on my fiance's car.

[BoostinMR2]

Wow , your car was so shinny and beautiful! :brick: :eek: Sorry to hear all that has happened to it. If you need to reground your car, and need to get wire and terminals cheap, then we have used this guy before: www.darvex.com

They carry good quality battery terminals, 4 gauge wires, and interconnects for cheap. And no I don't get anything if you buy from them, they are just very nice, and their service rocks. That goes for anyone else that needs stuff that he carries, very good shop.

GL with your project, and keep us updated.

X

Thanks! yea.. its sad seeing it all flat black and busted to hell. Soon enough tho, itll be back in action! ... I already have plenty of 4awg, and 2awg, and connectors, and terminals. [i am a mobile installer afterall]. Thanks for the link tho, i may hit them up in the future as im always in the market for this stuff! I'll definitely keep this updated.

you stated yourself what the problem is....

you got a remote start. I hear on the grape vine that after time, a remote start will mess with the electrical system of a car. That's mostly the main reason why I don't plan to install one on my fiance's car.

I have never heard this. I've been installing these things for well over 2 years.... and i've never had a problem with a customers car, or my own. I've had the same system in my MX6 since i've owned it and never once had a problem. We arent talking walmart bulldog bull**** here.. i have a DEI Viper 791XV, top-o-the-mutha-effin-line. It had nothing to do with the remote start.. it had to do with the main ground wire being insanely loose on the transmission. as soon as i tightened this up, the car started, and there were no more fires!

---

in fact, my remote starter may have saved my life. Had i not remote started it in my driveway.. and i just got in it, started it.. drove away... i wouldnt have known it was on fire [as i didnt even know it was when i went out and got in, because it was still small at that point, with no smoke]. I didnt have a fire extinguiser in the car, only in the house.. so if i was somewhere else.. it would have certainly been catastrophic.

----

everyone always knocks on remote starters... if properly installed by a professional, theres nothing wrong with them. He'll i even 'properly' installed it for a 5 speed.

[Don Fusskinrolla]

are you advertising?

[BoostinMR2]

are you advertising?

huh? advertising what?

[montroy]

Dang....  what was the speed limit on that curve, 90?  That sucks that all that stuff happened, but at least you're in good spirits.  Don't let the man get you down!

[BoostinMR2]

hahah no, it was actually 35. even i couldnt beleive how the hell i did all that at 35mph. the cop kept calling me a liar, and that he was gonna put speeding and reckless operation on the report.. after about 3 minutes, and him walking away telling me this ... i said - verbatim - 'i dont give a **** what you put on that ****ing report. I wasnt speeding, and i wasnt being reckless. You weren't here, you have no ****ing clue what happened'..... yea, he wasnt a happy camper. after my parents came, and backed me up .. saying they believed me [even tho they didnt] .. he came over at the end and appologized and said he would just put road conditions on it.. i took it with a grain of salt. he was a ****ing power hungry 25ish year old douchebag.

ps. i hate people.

UPDATE: hahaha.. yesterday i replaced my grounds.. no dice. The grounding spots that were there, were terrible.. the main ground was like.. a 10awg wire from the tranny to the engine mount bracket [uhh.?] and then a 14awg wire from there, to another point on the chassis. i replaced both of those with a single 2awg straight from tranny to chassis. and replaced/added others with 4awg. .... i then replaced the battery, because i decided maybe the shock killed the one that was in there.. and sitting around for months is never a good thing... well.. the car started on its own.. and held a steady 11.65 volts... rose to 11.8 volts [this was another older battery, that i had no idea about.. i was sitting in the shed.. haha] then suddenly dropped to 9.6volts [which the other one was at the whole time before completely dieing.] ... My next bet is that the alternator was fried. So i'm about to go outside.. pull it off [not the easiest task on a car thats like 4" from the ground, an exhaust thats about 3" from the ground, and the alt is on the bottom rear of the motor. sweet. Then im gonna bring both the alt and the battery that was in there [red top] to autozone and let them do their magical load tests on both of them. see if either/or are the problem. not that i have money to replace the alt anyway... [the battery is still under warrenty].. hmph. my life.

[BoostinMR2]

I'll leave you all with one peice of advice.

If you have an electrical problem.. check your fuses first. It'll save a LOT of hassle and confusion. Turns out my stupid 7.5 ignition fuse was blown. that in turn obviously told the alternator not to produce anything any more, becuase there was something mucho wrong. <33 Shop Manuals. Replaced the fuse, and i have a constant 14+v how stupid of a problem. but hey, i was about to replace my 315$ alternator. im glad i figured it out.

Anyway, thanks for the help guys!