This 1995 Pontiac Sunfire came in with several electrical complaints among which were the headlights flicker or flash, the radio turns off any time any lights are turned on or off, multiple dash warning lights flash on and off and the engine is sometimes hard to start. Sounds like a major ground or power fault to me and sure enough it was a faulty body ground. Some one had changed the negative battery cable but failed to install the body ground. Of course if you look at the bottom of the battery tray where the ground is supposed to attach the whole corner is rusted off.
I found a safe convenient location and attached the ground lead to the body. By safe, I mean that there is nothing behind the panel to be damaged by the screw. A simple fix to repair what seemed to be a very complicated problem.
could this be why my cars turns off on me randomly? after i’ve installed a new battery and alternator? my dashboard lights up with check signals too. my guess is that is as well a bad ground but i have no clue how to fix that.
It could, but on this particular vehicle, it only made it difficult or slow to crank. Do you have any tools to test with and can you be more specific, about the kind of car you have and exactly what is happening?
could this also cause your car not to start… everything in my car seems to turn on but the car itself..
It could affect the charging system but what kind of a drain are you experiencing? Battery goes dead while sitting or while driving?
Could this also be causing unnecessary (premature) battery drainage? If not, have you experienced those issues in the past, and how have you resolved them?