[Serf27]

Hey everyone,

Major issue on my hands, but I hope it’s a minor one!

I was driving about 30 minuets ago, 105° weather.
Suddenly the car jerked and multiple dash lights came on and I lost 80% power.
Abs
Traction control
Yellow brake light
Yellow coolant light followed by red coolant light almost immediately.
Yellow battery symbol
Yellow gear icon
Yellow tire pressure icon
I put the car in park and would not shift into drive.
I had to start it then shift into drive quickly before any lights came on to be able to go into drive.

I would drive about 400 ft then I would lose power again.

Oil level is good.
Coolant level was ok, I added some but it didn’t need that much to the point where the cooling system was dry.
I added about a quart.

When the car is on, windows won’t work. When the car is off, everything works.

Just got it towed home. Any ideas on what would cause this?

Only lights that were on before, SES because of downpipes and red tire sensor because I never swapped the sensors to the new wheels.

Thanks in advance.

[Greyhurst]

To me this sounds like some electrical wiring has melted, if you were driving your car in that heat and the engine was even a little low on coolant it could or got seriously hot in the engine bay. Perhaps a wire may of melted, did you smell anything? Do you remember what temps everything was ? Have a nose around the engine bay for any melted plastic I'd say.

[ewicky]

Originally Posted by Serf27

When the car is on, windows won’t work. When the car is off, everything works.

Sounds like a poor connection that can't carry the high current needed when the car is running. Check engine ground, battery ground, battery positive (including the weird little nuts holding the red distribution block together) and also the positive going into the glovebox fusepanel.

Report back.

[Serf27]

Thanks for the reply to both of you.

Originally Posted by Greyhurst

To me this sounds like some electrical wiring has melted, if you were driving your car in that heat and the engine was even a little low on coolant it could or got seriously hot in the engine bay. Perhaps a wire may of melted, did you smell anything? Do you remember what temps everything was ? Have a nose around the engine bay for any melted plastic I'd say.

I didn’t smell anything burnt when this happened. Oil temp was 250°
I don’t see or smell anything that may have burned.

Originally Posted by ewicky

Sounds like a poor connection that can't carry the high current needed when the car is running. Check engine ground, battery ground, battery positive (including the weird little nuts holding the red distribution block together) and also the positive going into the glovebox fusepanel.

Report back.

I let the car cool down, I just started it back up.
This time all ACC/windows worked while the car was running.
Only had traction light and yellow brake light on.
As it was warming up, everything else started happening again. Lost power to windows, abs/airbag/gear icon light showed up.

I will check battery connections and be back with results.

[ewicky]

Originally Posted by Serf27

I let the car cool down, I just started it back up.
This time all ACC/windows worked while the car was running.
Only had traction light and yellow brake light on.
As it was warming up, everything else started happening again. Lost power to windows, abs/airbag/gear icon light showed up.

I will check battery connections and be back with results.

Thermal expansion is often the cause of poor connections. That, or corrosion.
I'm not saying it's your cause for sure, but it's something free and easy to check

[Serf27]

Thermal expansion?
How do I check that?

I checked all battery connections, all checks out.
Battery voltage when car is off, 12.4 volts
Voltage at idle, 13.8-14.06 volts.

With the car on, only the yellow brake and DCS lights are on.

Oil temp was at 140° and the cooling fan turned on.
Revved the engine and yellow gear icon came on, cooling fan got louder.

Only SES codes, p0420/0430 from downpipes, nothing else.

Edit: I went out to the car to check coolant temp on cluster after sitting for about 5 hours.
111°.

I decided to drive around the block. As I’m pulling out of the driveway, all lights go away, is this it? Did the car fix itself? I drive half a mile and the car seems normal. I thought it was fixed for whatever reason and my next step is to flush all fluids.

I shift into sport mode and do some paddle shifts, then the yellow gear appears and traction light. I turn the car off, start it back and the lights go away then come back, I kept driving, they go away and come back.

At one point speedometer and fuel gauge stopped working, oil gauge fluctuated a bit.

Could it be low transmission fluid? I have started to notice once in a while when paddle shifting, the shifts are more jumpy/noticeable, even when not shifting aggressively. Shifting was not as noticeable before.
Car has 113k miles.