GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hey guys, I'm new to the site and sorry to start with a question, but honestly I'm much more likely to have questions than useful answers.Anyway. MY wife left a dome light on and killed a battery two days ago. I successfully jumped that evening, but it died again overnight and wouldn't jump (crank but couldn't turn over) Removed and charged battery. Would crank but not turn. Original battery (2006 Vibe) so I replaced it. Nothing new. Weird part is that car seems to crank well, but none of the guages light up. Interior lights, radio, acc's are all dead. No headlights off of new battery either.How many different problems am I probably looking at?thanks,JV

Welcome. Sounds like some fuses got blown or a fuseable link? Is it possible that, even momentarily, that you could have "shorted" the positive to ground OR reversed the leads while jumping the car? Somehow, somehwere, you took out some fuses. Crawl under the dash and start looking. Let us know what you find and ............................. did I say Welcome

With fully charged battery and good clean connections, I would first think of fuses, fusible links, relays/solenoids, including ignition and starter solenoids. Jumping the car might of blown a fuse. First check fuses in under hood fuse box, then interior fuse box. Look at owners manual under electrical of descriptions of fuse block and box. Look first for fuses that have to do with starting, ignition, and charging. Next, fuel system and ecu. Unfortunately, Toyota has multiple fuses that protects various links within those categories. To further narrow it down, is to verify if other functions within fuse description is functioning. Going from a 2010 vibe manual, other years may be different, In under hood fuse box look for fuse #6, 22, 20, 8, 18, 34, 11, 16, 19, 23, 24, 32, 34. 23 and 24 has engine immobilizer and theft deterrent, if equipped. I started by looking for ignition, starter, and charging system, then added ecu, fuel injection, and engine immobilizer and theft deterrents as priorities. I will later find and download a 2006 Vibe manual if someone else does not chime in.Interior fuse box would be 1, 8, 11, 17, 18 ,19, 20, 22, 25, 26,....order not prioritized.If this does not solve it, then I would have to try and find relevant fusible links, relays, and solenoids. Hopefully ecu is not damaged. There was a recall for some ECU's around your model year.When you say , "crank but not turn" is starter engaging and engine turning, but not starting?Make sure, if automatic, transmission is in park or neutral.Good luck tpollauf, by the time I looked some things up and started to post, you beat me to it! Good job.

thanks guys. I'll start pulling fuses and let you know how it goes. Am I mistaken or am I going to need to take yoga before getting at the fuse box under the steering column? I'm really hoping I find something in the engine box 1st.ALso, by "cranking" I meant that the just the starter is going. Normally it seems like the car always cranks longer than other vehicles I've owned, (2 secs maybe) but heard this is common to the vibe. Now it's just the same sound only without the vroom at the end.

checked all the fuses under the hood. A couple were blown, including the ALT marked 100a. Couldn't remove this one though. Is there some trick to it?

Blowing fuses like this is very unusual. Did you jump the car and reversed the + / - connections? Simply jumping would NOT have blown out a series of fuses like that. IF you did reverse the polarity check everything carefully for proper operation, many sensitive electronic items in modern cars.Dave

Thanks for the help, guys. Did have the +/- switched when I first hooked up yesterday, maybe a second or two. Checked all the fuses, both under hood and inside. Replaced the ALT 100amp and a couple others, one labeled EFI on schematics, guessing fuel injectors?Had to remove airfilter housing to get a fuses. Original 100amp had to be unbolted, found a link here that talked me through it. Pain though. Checking fuses under streering wheel was an adventure. Neighbor lady thought I was stuck. Laying on my side with legs sticking out of the car. All of those were ok. New fuses has everything working well again. Guys at AutoZone took the new battery back too which I wasn't sure they would do.Again, thanks for all the help.JV

Welcome to genvibe, Glad you got it workingI have never had to replace the 100A ALT fuse but it does look like a hassle. And I too hate the location of tthe underhood fuse block

I assume that but for those fuses you would have had a bigger and more expensive problem.

Quote, originally posted by djkeev »Blowing fuses like this is very unusual. Did you jump the car and reversed the + / - connections? Simply jumping would NOT have blown out a series of fuses like that. IF you did reverse the polarity check everything carefully for proper operation, many sensitive electronic items in modern cars.That ALT fuse, it just plugs in. Maybe use a pair of needle nose pliers, grip gently and rock as you pull up, it'll come.DaveI clearly think he had the jumpers on the wrong way. I did the same thing with my NEW VIBE to jump my old car. I had the wires on the wrong +/- of the old dead battery. (could not clearly see the POS.) ...And was fooled to think that the POS post was on the same side on all car batteries. The old car didn't start during the jumping. When I realized what I did, I thought that was the end of the Vibe. But nothing happened, and the Vibe and the old car are okay. I think I had the Vibe Pos on the dead's Neg. and Neg to dead body bolt. I thought I shorted the Vibe's Battery and all electronics!I wished the old car battery had that RED plastic cover.Just wondering, if he had the starter turning.... do you think it would turn backwards, if the voltage from the jumper car was reversed?

Never gave much thought to the starter turning backwards but the principle behind a DC motor is that it will indeed spin "backwards" as the + and - are hooked up in reverse. On AC motors, it doesn't matter. It would be an interesting experiment that I am NOT going to do on my VIBE !!!Any takers?I could see the motor spinning but on many starters the drive gear that comes out to engage the ring gear operates on not only a magnetic switch which thrusts out the gear but also a spiral ground into the motor shaft. The spiral is to thrust the drive gear back into the starter once the engine starts and the rotation speed exceeds the starters RPM thus preventing damage to the starter or the ring gear.It is questionable if the drive would actually engage the ring gear. Again, anyone want to test this on THEIR car??If indeed it did spin backwards and in turn did engage the ring gear it would have turned the motor backwards, probably to no ill effect except the tension on the camshaft drive chain would have been operating in reverse of the design. The chain tensioner would have been rendered ineffective being sucked in tight by the tension and the normally tight side of the chain would have gone slack. Worst case? It could POSSIBLY jump a tooth on timing?Interesting thought none the less.There have been cases where engines can and do run backwards, most often not well or for long but they run.Dave