Magical Electrical Mystery Tour

[slater_san]

2004 Hatch, no mods,but one big mystery.

Last night as I was shutting down, there seemed to be a electrical power surge.
Several dash indicators flipped over to max and returned to the off
position immediately. As a result, I have no power to the stock entertainment
system, no power to the interior light system, and no power to the locking
system. The master unlock works for all doors but the master locking command is not working.
The remote lock/unlock fob is also useless,
including the alarm button. All other electrical functions, (exterior lights,horn,
hazard lights, a/c) seem to be functioning normally.

I can drive no problem, but I'm driving to Kalamazoo, MI tomorrow (6 hrs)and it will
suck to have no tunes for the trip, in addition to the concerns about what
caused this.I checked a couple of the relevant fuses, they seemed OK.

Any online diagnosticians have any suggestions?

[S.F.W.]

do your gauges work? Speed, fuel, etc?

[b]

Could be a ground. I had this when my engine was replaced. They didn't connect my engine ground properly and my cluster needles would flip back and forth fast, lights flicker, stereo would not play and a slight hesitation when I would hit bumps... until it did completely shut off (with windows down etc) and I was f'd. Called Mazda roadside and they towed me back to the dealership. The guys there all laughed when my car was towed back in as I just drove it off the lot the day before. Ha ha.

They said it was just the ground that was loose. They forgot to crank it down after the big swap.

Just an idea to look for.

[Jeff-TheBiz]

I would not be going anywhere with a haunted car.. you need to look into this before you leave.

[slater_san]

Yep, the gauges work, but they're what briefly flipped when this began.

One more complication, and its a biggy.

I can't lock the hatch. All the doors have to have their locks
manually locked (except the drivers door which can be keyed)

This is a bigger problem than I thought. Don't think I want to
be parking my 3 unsecured in K-Zoo, or any other Zoo for that matter.

[Noisy Crow]

This is a bigger problem than I thought. Don't think I want to
be parking my 3 unsecured in K-Zoo, or any other Zoo for that matter.


Nor do you want to be cruising down the highway when your electrical system decides to lose its sanity....

[slater_san]

Hmmmmm, I do have an important reason to be in K-Zoo tomorrow,
but I live close to Downtown Mazda. I guess I'll try to reach them
at opening tomorrow morning and hope for the best.

[Noisy Crow]

You probably popped F31, which is the room fuse, plus either or both of F35 and F37, which protect the door locking system.

You indicated that your STOCK entertainment system has no power... do you have an after-market unit that might have been the source of the problem?

[slater_san]

No mods at all.. well, shark-fin antenna and thats it.

I'll double check those fuses before going to the dealer this morn.

Thanks

[slater_san]

One more thing, the trip odometer goes back to 0 each time the car is started.

[slater_san]

Well, once more with feeling,

Thanks all for paying attention to my problem.

Noisy Crow, I checked the fuses you mentioned
and they were all OK but the act of pulling them out
and putting them back in cleared up the problem.

Maybe a dirty contact or something similar?

Anyway, thanks again to all, Noisy Crow the first beer is on me.:gone

[Noisy Crow]

Well, once more with feeling,

Thanks all for paying attention to my problem.

Noisy Crow, I checked the fuses you mentioned
and they were all OK but the act of pulling them out
and putting them back in cleared up the problem.

Maybe a dirty contact or something similar?

Anyway, thanks again to all, Noisy Crow the first beer is on me.:gone

Always glad to help... and it's nice to get some use of the that wiring manual!

[FNKYSHT]

I had the same problem a few weeks back and it was the room fuse in the engine bay fuse box. Crow hit the nail on the head. I think that fuse line must run in tandem cause if any of those line fuses go then all hell breaks loose.

[slater_san]

Well, no problems during the trip to Michigan but since returning the
illumination on the stock cd/radio went off for a few minutes while
the music kept on playing. I managed to get the light to come back on
by playing with the headlight on/off switch.
The air bag light came on briefly the other day while braking and now my right low-beam headlight
has shut off again. This light went out about six months ago and as soon
as I bought a pair of replacement bulbs but before I could exchange them,
the damn light came back on again and hasn't caused me any problems since them until now.

I really love my 3 but these electrical issues are driving me up the wall!

Where should I begin because you know as soon as I take my 3 to a garage, everything will be working fine.

[Walrus]

Those fuses that you pulled and put back in, try putting new ones in instead to insure you have clean contact.

[slater_san]

Thanks Walrus..will do...

BTW, gotta love the orange sunset mica!

[Trinidad]

I'm no car expert, but I had something similiar happen on my old camry, not sure if you have checked it out but it could be the harness connected to the alternator, if the fuses check out okay you might want to check that. What happened in my situation is that turned off the car then turned it back on, then no AC or radio or brake light. Seemed like the car blew up but turned out to be the harness, few wires broken etc. Anyways hope you get it sorted out.

[slater_san]

OK, its been a couple of years since I started this thread and while the original electrical problems
have not resurfaced , i have been bothered with headlamp failures on more than one occasion and its
really starting to piss me off. After having the headlights fail intermittently a couple of years ago, I
went to one of our sponsors to have some HID installed thinking some clean wiring would do the trick.
After watching the lights flicker and fail over a period of several months (and to his credit, the sponsor
tried to help and did some changes) I finally gave up and took the car to my regular mechanic.
He ripped out the HIDs, installed original lights and voila, all was well again. One year later, first the
passenger light, then both lights have failed and my regular mechanic is willing to help, but he's backlogged.
I work shifts so I must have lights and I can't run the high beams only.

Anybody have a recommendation for a garage to visit in the downtown/east side/Riverdale area?
Bulbs are fine and fuses are inta
ct, so it could be a wiring investigation.

I really want this problems fixed once and for all.

Model deets are in the original post...no significant mods except the HIDs, which are gone.

Thanks, Dave.