95-850 shut down-no electrics, no starter, nothing

rons850 · Post by **rons850** » 15 Apr 2011, 20:13

Was driveing my 95-850 na in some heavy rain when it shut down. The blades stopped in place, radio wouldnt work, 4 way flashers wouldnt work, windows nothing . After trying to restart the car it would not turn over at all, the starter would not click or engage. Asssumeing it was baterry or alternator I left the key advanced and popped the hood, went to the front of the car no head lights, Iwent to move the positive on the battery to check for loose connection and it burnt my hand, not warm, hot hot. ANY SUGGESTIONS???????

rons850 · Post by **rons850** » 15 Apr 2011, 20:22

NO INPUT ANYONE

Post by **JRL** » 15 Apr 2011, 20:27

Check your battery cables

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 15 Apr 2011, 20:29

Clean up the battery terminal and charge the battery. A battery terminal that was that hot was obviously not making a good connection.

I'm not sure what your current conditions are and where the car is located. I have in the past taken a dead battery into an Advance auto parts store to have it "checked", as a part of the checking process they charge it but it takes an hour or so.

...Lee

Post by **Pauloil** » 15 Apr 2011, 21:07

search "VOLTAGE DROP" and learn how to check you cables your batt to starter cable may have a bad end on it.

Schmitty · Post by **Schmitty** » 15 Apr 2011, 23:32

A battery that is hot like that is shorting itself out. What this means is instead of electricity going through all the electronics, it's going through straight from one terminal to another. The energy has to be used up somehow and it is turned into heat. Seeing as you said it was raining, I would:
1)Unplug the battery (probably best to take out the battery, bring it inside to dry it off completely)
2)dry off any water/rain/moisture that got inside the engine compartment.

Do this FIRST before trying to trouble shoot any electrical problem.

EDIT: In addition to a battery being shorted (causing heat) a battery can also cause heat by putting too much current through too small a wire. As soon as a wire starts to fray, the diameter of the wire get's smaller, so the amount of current that normally goes through it won't cause heat, but the ratio of current to cross-sectional area of the wire increases so the amount of heat increases. I don't know how to say that any less nerd-like.

gilhuly · Post by **gilhuly** » 16 Apr 2011, 07:10

I would go over the major system of positive cables from the battery to the ecu, starter etc and the grounds. These cars are starting to show flaky continuity in these cables more commonly and more resistance equals more heat.

rons850 · Post by **rons850** » 19 Apr 2011, 09:41

After assumeing it was the baterry I tested it after the car would do nothing and battery showed a full charge. I left the key turned on and moved the hot cable and a/c blower kicked on. It was the cable, it had turned green and broke in half not allowing a connection.

Post by **BEJinFbk** » 19 Apr 2011, 11:56

Schmitty wrote:A battery that is hot like that is shorting itself out. What this means is instead of electricity going through all the electronics, it's going through straight from one terminal to another. The energy has to be used up somehow and it is turned into heat. Seeing as you said it was raining, I would:
1)Unplug the battery (probably best to take out the battery, bring it inside to dry it off completely)
2)dry off any water/rain/moisture that got inside the engine compartment.

Do this FIRST before trying to trouble shoot any electrical problem.

EDIT: In addition to a battery being shorted (causing heat) a battery can also cause heat by putting too much current through too small a wire. As soon as a wire starts to fray, the diameter of the wire get's smaller, so the amount of current that normally goes through it won't cause heat, but the ratio of current to cross-sectional area of the wire increases so the amount of heat increases. I don't know how to say that any less nerd-like.

The OP stated that the battery terminal was hot, not the battery.
This points to a MUCH more likely cause of heat, high cable or connector resistence.
Something as simple as a loose clamp could do that. And the cables on these cars
are getting pretty long in the tooth at this age, so a corroded cable is no surprise.

It's very unlikely that any battery would get dirty enough, with material conductive
enough, that enough current would flow from post to post to actually creat heat.
Drain a battery over a long period? Maybe. Heat it up? Nah...At least IMHO.