Stall at lights...clock resets...please help! ground?

[mooshi]

Hi,
My wifes 2000 GLS 2.0 with about 75K miles (auto) recently had a problem where the battery drained. So we had it checked and replaced. Couple weeks later now, the car stalls while stopped at the light. Wife says the digital clock resets to 12:00 when it happens too. The car starts back up so far.....

Please help with ideas...(no CEL)...could it be a loose ground wire? (if so where do I check?)

Thank you very much!

PS I tried to do a search on the 'old forums' but the search engine malfunctioned...

[mooshi]

anyone have any suggestions?

....I think it may be related to the bloody battery replacement. Bloody pepboys must have messed something up when they put the new one in...never had problems before...now it stalls out and sometimes the ABS light flashes on...

[noR]

I'm trying to think of what it could be but yeah, MAYBE the battery's not attached right. Maybe sometimes when it stops, the something shifts forward and breaks the circuit.

I assume you checked the 2 main battery connections.

[iScott]

I'm not an expert... but is the alternator still good? I don't know why the ABS light would come on either.

Good luck, duder.

[pencilneck]

Not much to installing the battery. But I would take a close look at the clamps and that little fat red cable that goes from the battery positive clamp to the fuse block. Make sure all of those 10mm nuts on the fuse block are secured as well.

There could also be a chance that there is an issue with the battery itself. I have run into issues where one of the welds that joins the cells of the battery together gets screwed up and when a load is put on the battery, it gets hot and bends back thus going open circuit. This would show up when trying to start the car and a heavy load was being placed on the battery.... the engine would crank for a second then everything would die, cluster would go blank and 3 seconds later everything would kick back on. However, you case is the car starts but craps out when stopping.

I would suggest doing a throttle body adaption since the car is a 2000 2.0L so it could have that issue, but with the clock resetting, sounds like battery power is being lost.

If the alt wasn't charging, then I'd not expect the car to be able to restart since the engine would be running off the battery and leave nothing for the starter when needed.

Aside from the battery, has any other work been performed to the car in the last few months?

[mooshi]

Thanks you for the ideas!
As for other work on the car, its been totally reliable and has needed nothing since we bought it used earlier this year...battery died, replaced, now this...

What is the throttle adaptation about?

... I read somewhere about a notorious relay (relay 191 or something) that acts up sometimes...anyone know about this?

Also read here that the wire harness sometimes needs replacement...I'm guessing that can have some strange electrical gremlins/precursors prior to diagnosis...

Thanks again for you input...keep em coming please.

[Dick_Larimore]

If there were a high resistance or intermittent connection to the battery or the ground to the engine block, why would the car only die at idle? What's more, why would the car always start right after dying? A bad connection like this would likely leave you stranded. This is also true for a bad relay 109 (load reduction relay) in the 13 fold relay panel under the dash on the driver side.

Since the radio is loosing its presets and the time, power must be temporarily lost to fuse 42 that provides all the time power to the radio for presets and the time.

[mooshi]

FIXED! I love the mooshi again!

Problem ---> Pepbos mechanics failed to tighten battery terminal bolt!

The car finaly stranded my wife in the middle of the night...I decided then to sell the car...but it was finally the weekend and I was gonna give it a good check up to see if there was something obvious. I tok off the batery cover and saw right away that the red cable was flopping around untightened. I tightened it and we're out of th woods!

Thank you everyone!