Hey everyone. I experienced a VERY strange problem last night, and it has me completely stumped. So I'm really hoping you guys can help me out here, since my car is out of commission now. I have an '06 MT coupe. So here's what happened. Warning: It's a long one, but I want to be sure to hit the details.

I was getting to the end of the highway and suddenly my accelerator pedal stopped working. The car had no loss of power and showed no other issues, but the pedal just stopped working. I slowed up for the intersection, downshifted and figured I was going to coast to a stop. However the car kept crawling along at basically an idle. I was able to get into a parking lot, and then the dash lights started coming on. The ABS, VDC, and SLIP lights came on and stayed on. I noticed the accelerator then started working again, and the lights went off. I went to put it in first gear, and as soon as I shifted, the RPMs went up slightly without touching the gas and while the clutch was still engaged. As soon as I shifted to neutral, RPMs went down, and this would repeat. So I shut the car off, let it sit a second, then tried to start it. It wouldn't even try to crank over, but I still had accessory power. I let it set a few minutes, tried again, and it started up, dash lights off and all.

So then I drove down the road a couple miles to the bank, went to leave the ATM, accelerator was gone again. I was able to get it out of the way, and I let it sit while running. The three dash lights came back on again, and then after a few minutes it started getting real strange. The three dash lights started blinking on and off, and then it started running crappy for brief stints and then would recover. Then my gauges lost illumination, and kept going on and off. Then the air bag light started flashing, and the other three dash lights kept going on and off, all while the gauges kept cutting out. Then my AC turned on by itself, and the fan turned up all the way to high, and I couldn't even turn it off or change any settings. Then one by one, the dash lights started fading out like they were losing power. So I shut the car off, and the headlights wouldn't shut off! Then I tried to start it and the battery was dead, so I jumped it. Seemed to be back to normal again, so I was determined to try to get it home to check things out. Made it a few miles, and the accelerator cut out again and all the issues started happening again, even with the AC coming on by itself and everything. It actually seemed to replicate the exact sequence of events. I also noticed that at one point, the accelerator was working while in neutral, and then wouldn't work when in gear. So I had it flat-bedded home, and the battery is seemingly dead.

I guess at this point it's also worth mentioning that I had the car garaged for the winter, and just brought it back out last week. I wasn't having any issues until this, but I was noticing a burning rubber smell coming through the vents. I checked this out and didn't come up with anything, but the smell seemed to be coming from the passenger side of the engine bay, near the battery area.

So I know this was a lot to read, so thank you to anyone who's willing to read it all and try to help me out. I'm completely lost on this one!

 

I once had a problem very similiar to this. It turned out to be a bad connection to the fuse box under the hood that sits above the battery. The large power wire that plugs into the bottom of the fuse box had come loose and was melting when the connection was poor and had the same symptoms when it came completely loose. Check that connection and see what it looks like.

 

tell my why this story legit scared me. the legend of the haunted g

 

I'll check this out, thanks for the suggestion.

Also an update: I brought the battery to be tested, and it passed. So I guess that's ruled out. Now I'm wondering if it's the alternator, since I found a thread on here where the guy had some similar issues to mine which were fixed by replacing the alternator. When I went to pick up my battery from Advance Auto, the guy was asking me about what was going on with my car. He said a buddy had a 350z that had a similar problem, which turned out to be a blown fuse. Something to do with a fuse that controls the alternator sending a charge back to the battery. Anyone know what he's talking about?

 

Where is the neutral safety switch located? My 03 g35 would not crank all lights would come on but would not turn over. Had a friend tell me to put the car in neutral to crank it and it worked. Said it would be the neutral safety switch. Is this correct? Thanks

 

You said it I seen this happen before with a dying battery ... Did you try replacing your battery at the same time make sure connections are clean and good? Let us know ..

 

It's your alternator. Those symptoms are exactly what happens when your alternator isn't charging the battery and the battery gets discharged. The no accelerator pedal thing happened to me b4. Very scary. In summary, it's your alternator.

 

So another update. I just drove it down the road a few miles to Advance Auto and they tested the alternator, which passed. So now I'm really lost. I have a squealing noise that sounds like it's coming from the alternator, but it output 14.43V with no load, and 14.38V under load. I bought new terminals since the existing ones are too big for the battery, and I've been using those adapter sleeves on the terminals. I noticed when I was putting my battery back in, that the terminals weren't securing to the posts very well, so I had put new sleeves on for a temporary fix. I'll put the new terminals on tonight though. But even if I did have a loose terminal connection, I don't understand how that would've caused these problems, since something DID drain my battery completely.

 

Loose connection would be the culprit ... Did you drive it and see if everything is good now?

 

I haven't changed the terminals out yet, but I changed out the adapter sleeves and it was a lot more secure. Then I drove it down to Advance Auto and back with no issues, but that was only about a five mile round trip. So I get why a loose connection could cause all of the issues, but how would the battery drain because of it?

 

Just a theory but if the loose connection was to your alternator the battery may be draining as you drive since the alternator should be carrying the power load instead of the battery. This was the problem in an older car I had.