This 1994 Oldsmobile 88 Royale came in with a complaint of an intermittent no run condition along with an intermittent no power window condition as well. If one system was okay, so was the other and when one was acting up, the other one was as well. This is a very common problem, and I have been waiting a long time to find one of these vehicles with condition. The problem is located under the driver’s side carpet.
There is a ground gang connector under the carpet on the driver’s side, that for a multitude of reasons fails. The most common cause is water damage like this one.
If you double click on the pictures you will be able to see the corrosion and moisture.
I removed the cover to inspect.
The internal terminals.
The damaged comb connector.
I was able to clean the comb connector and replace the damaged terminals. I packed dielectric grease into the connector to help keep moisture out and reassembled. If needed one can cut all of the ground wires loose and connect them all together using standard splicing terminals.
I was amazed that my connections looked exactly like yours, water damage and all. Are all these ground wires and can they be spiced together as one, and can something else, like Vaseline or grease be used to help keep moisture out?
Sound problems are almost impossible to trouble shoot remotely. Can you determine the general area the sound is coming from? Belt, pulleys, starter?
okay, so I recently had the problem which you describe here… and the solution you posted is awesome… fixed the problem… but…. after fixing the problem, immediately a strange grinding noise occurs now after starting and goes away with some rev’ing. what could have happened during that period where my electrical was down? it’s been persistant for the last month now.
I do not remember a battery drain condition being associated with this problem. The most common causes are stuck power door lock switches and the memory circuit in the radio drawing too much current.
would this have anything to do with constant battery drain as well?