Weird Malfunction

[MadBill]

Well, I had a problem today with the Vibe that I've never seen in 45 years of motoring! It was -26 C (-12F.) this morning, but the after a very slow crank, the Vibe fired right up. I let it warm up for a while, then drove off. A few blocks from home I belatedly realized I had no gauges..., or signals..., blower, lights, radio... In short, absolutely everything but the engine was totally dead! I headed home, telling myself that yes, that blank odometer would show under 60,000 km. (in warranty) if I could just see it, then 1/2 a block from home everything came back to life! I've started and driven it a number of times since and all seems OK. Hopefully an unexplained, never to be repeated fluke...

[Sputnik]

Weird! My car started up and then wouldn't start up after I finished getting my groceries this morning. Must be the cold. My phone is dead as well.

[Kari]

Our Trailblazer did that once and they had to replace the entire gauge cluster...I'd get it checked out.

[cohocarl]

That does seem odd. Wonder if there's a wiring harness for the dash that may be unseated a little and the cold was enough to make it loose connection.(?) Either that, or you were almost abducted by aliens, but got away... Hope it's nothing major.

[ragingfish]

Loose fuse maybe that got jarred somehow?

[ArcsVibe]

I was going to say that as well!

[futseal04]

I have seen instrument clusters do that if they are getting low voltage....like both of my motorcycles had just enough juice to power the headlight and the ignition, and it turned out that the batteries (on seperate occasions on two different bikes) had an internal short that lowered voltage.I would check the battery condition. I have seen on numerous times where the battery either is dead, or has a bad connection, and just the motor runs.......so if you get the gumption, check your battery connections, and make sure there is enough water in it (if it isn't a sealed one).

[Jahntassa]

If it's that much stuff? It sounds like it's something with the ignition. Did it only happen once? Maybe let the car warm up and then try off/on again?

[MadBill]

Thanks for all the good input gang! Knock on wood, it's only happened once. If it every warms up (-10 F. again this AM!), I'll check fuses and connections and have the battery tested. Ah well, 10 months of warranty still, as long as I drive less than 4,000 km....

[cdFxer]

Check the relays as well. The areas you described are fed from one of them... PM me and I will look it up if you want. Ive seen a hairline crack in an automotive type relay (actually any relay would do this, lol) let in moisture and when it froze the contact plate could not move. Probably not likely on the Vibe tho...

[jake75]

Quote, originally posted by futseal04 »I have seen instrument clusters do that if they are getting low voltage....like both of my motorcycles had just enough juice to power the headlight and the ignition, and it turned out that the batteries (on seperate occasions on two different bikes) had an internal short that lowered voltage.I would check the battery condition. I have seen on numerous times where the battery either is dead, or has a bad connection, and just the motor runs.......so if you get the gumption, check your battery connections, and make sure there is enough water in it (if it isn't a sealed one).But if the car uis runnign would you not be getting the electrical power from the alternator? Seems to me that once the engine is running your battery could be dead and the car would operate o.k. electrically.

[ColonelPanic]

That's kinda what I'm thinking. If it were just the cluster, it could be a loose connection there or faulty cluster. But with the cluster, radio, fan, etc. all being dead, something on that circuit somewhere has crapped out, I would think.On a side note, I wonder if the cluster not receiving power would affect the odometer? Would it still show the same mileage when the power is restored as it did when it went out? Or would it still update (possibly reading from the PCM?) These silly things I wonder about... Good luck getting this sorted out. That's a strange problem! Will be interesting to see the outcome! Hopefully it's just a fluke and will never happen again.

[Atomb]

there was that solar storm on Saturday sending out radiation....could that be causing the problem (and along with Sputnik's phone death?) google it and you'll see. They were calling for some great northern lights and seeing as the 2 of you live a little further north....who knows!