i need help electrical problems in a 1997 saturn?

Question

ok, my wifes saturn has recently developed a habit of losing all its juice on cold mornings, i have checked all the ignition wires, and i know its not the battery because i can wiggle the ignition wires and it cranks up, but i replaced the ignition module at the back of the switch and hooked the wires back up and its still doing it, and i have tested all the ignition wires on the way into the car to see if im losing power there and im not, so i dont know where to go from there, any help would be greatly appreciated

Answer 1

One of your wire connectios are bad.Find the wire that goes to the starter solenoid and trace it with a meter and find the bad connection.

Answer 2

Wiggle what ignition wires ?? This should tell you the problem immediately. If you are speaking of battery terminals then go to auto supply or wal mart and get a battery brush. Made for cleaning battery terminals.wkile you are there get some battery terminal protector and cleaner, comes in an aerosol, or something similar. Remove your battery terminals, negative first, and clean the terminals and posts till they are shiny. Replace ,positive first, and tighten till they don't move. Make sure they are well down on the post. Coat with terminal protector and hope the problem is solved. Battry terminals get a very hard coating on them that insulates them and does not allow full voltage to get thru.

Answer 3

try this, get a multimeter and set it to VDC, put red on pos and black on neg on the battery. on a morning that its loosing its juice, try and start the engine and have someone watch the reading, hold the key in start until you get a good reading. the reading should be above 9.6 at 70 degrees. but you said it was cold so im gonna say around 30 degrees so the reading should be above 9.2 it think is the spec. anyway if it drops below 9.6 id put it on a trickle charge. if battery doesnt move at all or doesnt move much (from where its reading with no load) then take the multimeter and leave the black on ground and put red lead on the starter solenoid excite wire, while cranking you should have 10-12 volts there. if you dont the problem is in the starting circuit, get a wiring diagram. if you do have the voltage check continuity with the multimeter one lead on starter housing and one on ground of battery, if bad continuity check block grounding to battery, if good check power into and out of starter solenoid while cranking, if voltage coming out and into starter then starter bad-hit with hammer while cranking sometimes will free it up, but also means you need to get a new one. if no power coming out of solenoid (where wire goes to starter)but solenoid excite wire has power then solenoid is bad. sorry about the tangent hope it helps.

Answer 4

Sounds as if the battery may have a dead cell. If this the case the battery will lose juice when it is cold Try Replacing the battery

Answer 5

electrical problems are the hardest thing to find start with the basics, clean the bat terminals and cable ends follow the trail good luck.I think anything besides basics you better pay a mechanic that knows elec!!!