Car starts and runs fine, but not getting any power to any of the accessories like radio, power windows, turn signals, AC fan, anything inside cabin

[itzjohnnynguy3n]

Hello All. I need help and I have no idea what's going on with my car. Recently, my car will start and runs fine, every once so often it won't start but it'll start 30 minutes later. However, the more constant issue is I'm not getting any power to any of the accessories in both the ignition ON(1 turn clockwise) and ACESSORY(1 turn counter clockwise) modes. My battery is new good, alternator is good as it will stay at 14v when car is on and also battery is charging. I've checked the fuses, they're all good. When the car is running, no 12v is being sent to any of the fuses in the cabin fuse box, hence none of the accessories work. I've checked the grounds at the following locations:
1. Battery negative to frame
2. Front Engine fuse box negative line near driver side wheel fender
3. Belt tensioner to frame
All are good. Now I'm thinking it's either the ignition switch not providing the 12v in the ON or accessory setting. Or something is wrong with the starter ground as it links to a lot of the accessories. Has anyone faced this issue before?? I've ordered the ignition switch and a new starter as well.


Edit***
So intermittently the starter will now not start. However when the starter won't start, it'll make some weak clicks and then I see smoke coming from the engine bay by the alternator side. It turns out, my oil cooler line is shorting the starter I guess and it's burning my oil line so bad there's a hole in it and now oil is spilling everywhere. The oil cooler line is touching the hood hinge frame bolt and I guess that's causing the short to burn through the braided oil line. I guess I have a really bad ground somewhere between battery and frame, frame to engine, and it's routing the current through my braided oil cooler lines. Lol. Been scratching my head.

Final update:
It ended up being two separate issues. The intermittent start was because my starter is mostly rusted so it was grounding in some parts but not everywhere on the casing. This probably routed the ground to the cooler line and burnt it up. I got a new starter and the ground is perfect on the new starter.


The electronic issue was due to my ignition switch. The black and orange wire that feeds 12v power to the fuse box in the run position wasn't reading any voltage at all. I replaced it now all the electronics is good.

 

[Goggles Pizano]

What have you done since asking this on FB?

Jumper the ignition switch to see if that's the problem.

 

[itzjohnnynguy3n]

What have you done since asking this on FB?

Jumper the ignition switch to see if that's the problem.

How do you jump the ignition switch?

Since posting, the starter was having issues starting. It shorted the power to my oil cooler line that was touching a frame bolt and burnt a hole into the braided oil cooler line. This happened when I held the start switch, the starter will click a couple times then I see smoke coming out from the alternator area. Eventually came to find out it was my oil cooler line burning up from a short I guess. Now I'm currently removing that oil cooler line. Car is useless now because oil will spew everywhere. I plan on removing the steering column next to get to the ignition switch.

 

[Goggles Pizano]

I think you are over your head.

How did the startor short to the cooler lines? What did you remove and then reconnected?

 

[itzjohnnynguy3n]

I think you are over your head.

How did the startor short to the cooler lines? What did you remove and then reconnected?

The only thing I did was put the hood back on. The hood has two ground points that connects to the hinge. The hinges connect to the frame. The oil cooler lines are on the passenger side and those lines are routed very tightly against the frame to the front oil cooler in the bumper. The cooler line is braided and will read the 12v when I touch the positive prob and negative prob to the cooler line. The cooler line touched the hinge bolt and started sparking when the starter doesn't crank. No sure how the heck 12v is being routed there but it is. And it literally burned a hole through the cooler lines now oil is leaking. It's only sparking when the starter doesn't crank. When it does crank everything is fine except the interior accessories. It's a weird problem.

I'm going to install new cooler lines and insulate with non conductive material so it doesn't touch the frame/hinge bolts to cause a short.

 

[Chris Charleston]

Saw it before, the braided lines become the negative stater cable because you probably have an issue with the real ground cables. Start by doing a voltage drop test on the ground side of the battery. Anything more than a half a volt between the battery negative and the bare metal on the starter housing during cranking means a problem. Remove and clean connections on the fat black cables between battery and frame and frame to engine. Happy hunting

 

[itzjohnnynguy3n]

Saw it before, the braided lines become the negative stater cable because you probably have an issue with the real ground cables. Start by doing a voltage drop test on the ground side of the battery. Anything more than a half a volt between the battery negative and the bare metal on the starter housing during cranking means a problem. Remove and clean connections on the fat black cables between battery and frame and frame to engine. Happy hunting

Wow thank you! I'm glad I'm not the first person to experience this issue. So I probably have a grounding fault somewhere that's linked to the starter because it's messing up my cabin accessory after the car is cranked and running. And when the starter wouldn't crank it's shorting to the cooler line. I'm going to sand down the battery to frame and frame to engine and see how it goes.

 

[Dan Cragin]

You have a bad ground from the engine to the frame, passenger side frame rail.

 

[itzjohnnynguy3n]

You have a bad ground from the engine to the frame, passenger side frame rail.

Is this the one that's connected from frame to the belt tensioner? The cable is very stiff. Im going to replace it and see

 

[itzjohnnynguy3n]

Update*** I think I found the ground wire issue. G100 (the ground cable near the engine fuse box PDC and PCM that connects to the bolt near the side skirt, behind driver side wheel well) that cable is reading a resistance of 50 ohms. The engine block itself is reading about 7+ ohms resistance. Most other ground locations are under 1 ohms about 0.2-0.7. So I probably need to replace that cable, but I have no idea where it starts. Does anyone? Do I have to cut into the harness and trace it?

 

[GTS Dean]

CLEAN THE TERMINALS.

 

[Goggles Pizano]

CLEAN THE TERMINALS.

He was told that on his FB post by multiple people.
My understanding is it a wreck he is rebuilding from a comment on FB by someone else.

 

[itzjohnnynguy3n]

Thank you all who helped. It ended up being a bad ignition switch. When tracing my ground faults into the interior cabin fuse box. I found out the ignition wire(black orange) that provides 12v power in the RUN position wasn't reading any voltage. I replaced the ignition switch and boom. All the electronics are working again.

 

[itzjohnnynguy3n]

He was told that on his FB post by multiple people.
My understanding is it a wreck he is rebuilding from a comment on FB by someone else.

Wasn't terminal issue.