1995 Chevy Lumina 1995 Lumina went dead. Won't start

Tiny
TOMD915
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  • 1995 CHEVROLET LUMINA
Electrical problem
1995 Chevy Lumina 6 cyl Front Wheel Drive Automatic 112K miles

I replaced the battery on the car about 1 month ago. Its been running great. This AM I went to start it. It started to turn over and fire up like always and then it suddenly died. Now I have no head or tail lights, no dashboard lights, no dome light inside the cars interior - nothing at all when I put the key in. Even the electric door locks are dead and I have to lock the car manually. The car has the anti-theft keys (Key has black box in it with a metal contact). I have been told this model of lumina has a fuse in line in the pos. Battery terminal that can blow.

I think the problem could be this fuse in the battery terminal since no power is getting anywhere. Even the headlights are dead. But what do I know?


Pls. Let me know what it could be asap.

Txks.
Monday, March 9th, 2009 AT 5:02 PM

4 Replies

Tiny
RASMATAZ
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Sir/madam

You have 2 fusible links at the starter battery terminal test it before and after the link with a test light and then comeback with some results.
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Monday, March 9th, 2009 AT 5:11 PM
Tiny
TOMD915
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I checked the links from the battery out and it all looks good. The fuses I looked at all seemed to be ok and I replaced 2 40Amp fuses that are marked "1 Ing Sw" and "2 Ing Sw". They are ignition switch fuses and I replaced them with new ones to make sure they were ok. The rest of the fuses I checked and the battery connections all seemed to be working. A test light went on in front of and behind the connections at both fuse boxes and at the starter solenoid.

Where do you think the problem is? Now What do I do?

Txks.
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Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 AT 11:09 AM
Tiny
RASMATAZ
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Do you have a smaller wire attached on the positive battery cable if so folow it till it comes up to the battery remote stud test this wire for an open between the battery positive and the stud.

Do you have power on the ignition switch 1/2?

This smaller wire powers the Ign Sw 1/2 40amp

Also check the headlamps maxi circuit breaker 20amp
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Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 AT 4:25 PM
Tiny
TOMD915
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I pulled the battery the other day and had it checked to make sure this wasn't something simple. The battery was 12.4 volts and showing "low". The guy checking it said it should at least turn on the lights etc. I came home, and just on the chance that this was all a loose connection problem I put it back in and the car suddenly came back up, started and has been running. .

So no, the problem is not solved, but I got the car moving. I am going to pull the alternator and have it checked out to see if it is faulty, but I am also going to check over the battery cables. They are in separate pieces on this thing which I think is ridiculous. No wonder GM is in trouble - they can turn even a positive battery cable into something complicated.

I read on the internet there are 2 pieces to this pos. Cable end leading down to the starter motor and there is a fusable link in this cable between these 2 pieces. When that blows you are suppose to cut it out and splice the 2 parts of this pos. Cable back together. I knew nothing about this when I put my new battery in, and may have loosened this type of connection without even knowing it was there.

This cable travels down under the battery in front of the car to the starter. You can barely see it at all, what I could see looked fine and everything seemed tight when I put the new battery in. The car also started up with no problems and I figured all my problems were solved. That was a month ago, then everything went dead the other day.

I think someone may have done that splicing-job a long time ago before I bought the car and my moving the cable and battery around when I put the new battery in may have loosened this connection at first. With time it may have loosened up more and more until everything went dead the other day.

Then my moving the battery to take it out/put it back in this week may have tightened it enough to get a circuit back again.

So I have to look down the length of the positive battery cable leading to the starter and see what is going on in there, then I am going to have the alternator checked to see if it is Ok. All of the fuses I checked in all 3 fuse boxes were fine, nothing blown.

The last time I had anything similar to this problem was on my truck. It was a hair-line crack in the negative battery terminal that you could barely see that was causing it. The terminal was snug, but not tight enough for a good connection. The truck had power and lights come on, but it would not even crank to start. I replaced this cracked terminal and has been fine ever since.

I'll be busy and will get to this at the end of this week. Lets see what I find, but right now the car is running but I won't trust it until I check it further.
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Monday, March 16th, 2009 AT 3:11 PM

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