NO power after 5min park, faulty power wire?

[NeoMishMoo]

Small backstory:
Car vibrates a good bit due to some rear wheel bearings I've been too lazy to install and needing some suspension work.
Car has been having an intermittent start issue this past week, sometimes the starter whirs and won't start, turning key off & trying again works perfect.

Today I was running a couple errands. Starts perfect runs perfect each time. On my last stop I park for 5 minutes, go to leave and nothing. No power whatsoever, I connect my battery to a spare battery I had in my trunk (my alternator was failing last month) [Also I'm aware it isn't recommended to jump from the battery] The jump did nothing. Take the battery to the front and jump it off the positive power block. Starts fine. Remove the cables and it continues to run. Go to back out of the parking spot and dies (perhaps was pulling enough juice from the battery to maintain idle but not run?)

I'm not in the best area to diagnose further so at this point I say F it and decide to limp the car home (9miles). So I snake my handy dandy supreme 4ga XLong jumper cables from my battery out of the trunk into my rear window, outside my passenger window and under the hood to the firewall block and ground it to the engine hoist ring. Don't worry I keep the trunk/hood stable with some gorilla tape. :pimp:

I'm going over the ground wires now, sanding and such. I've already got an extra cable grounding the engine. It seems to be that the big 00ga power wire has a short in it somewhere.

Has anyone else had to replace their positive battery cable?

[NeoMishMoo]

Took a lunch break instead of sanding ground connections. Let it sit a couple hours and the auto-repair technology kicked in. Went back out and tested to see if there was power at the firewall there was. Turned the key over and it started up just fine... I still need to do the ground wires and check for some corroded connections because there is a gremlin in there for sure.

[Gregs///M]

I've had problems like this before. Turns out the heat from running the car would cause the starter solenoid to not work. ONly happens when hot. Let it cool, starts up. Replaced the starter assembly and never happened again. During moments of no start, it would make no sounds, no nothing. Then crank fine without issue.

Before you consider replacing the starter, check the engine ground cable on the drivers side from the oil pan to the frame rail. This is the ground for the starter and must be clean, oxidation free, and very tight.

[dogsbark26]

I think I have this issue too. Called heat soak?

[NeoMishMoo]

My starter only acts up when it has been sitting, not a heat issue. But the real issue that I had was that the car was getting NO POWER at all. Not even the dimmest of lights was on. It was as if I had a fuse on my battery cable blow. I ran a 4ga jumper cable from the positive battery post to the positive power block in the engine bay at the firewall and it worked just fine.

[dogsbark26]

Why do you say that? In your first post you clearly stated that the car was warm - had been parked for only 5 minutes after running errands. This is the condition Gregs///M and I are referring to.
Mine starts and runs fine every time... Until sometimes when I run the air conditioning (it is hot) I'll park for a few minutes to run in a store and when I return car won't start. No solenoid click, nothing. Smoke a cigarette, get back in and it starts right up like usual. I believe my issue is what Gregs///M referred to. Problem with starter.

Are you aware that there is a fusible link in the battery cable from the trunk?

[oliver.r]

I had a extremely similar problem, it ended up being a cable INSIDE my fuse box was loos and making false contact, sometimes it would start, sometimes it wouldn't, sometimes it would just die while driving

[NeoMishMoo]

I had a extremely similar problem, it ended up being a cable INSIDE my fuse box was loos and making false contact, sometimes it would start, sometimes it wouldn't, sometimes it would just die while driving

I'll check on this. But the battery cable goes from firewall to fusebox correct? So if this was the case then it should still not have worked when I ran a wire from the battery to the power block on the firewall right?