I was just having a normal groggy saturday morning, nothing out of the usual. Drove the car last night and everything was fine. I went to start my MY00 s2000, pushed the engine start and accidently let off the clutch so the start cut off. nothing unusual, so i try again and... no power at all. i realize at that point i must have shorted something because the whole car has no power at all. cannot use power door locks, lights, interior lights, ANYTHING. i checked the main fuse just south of the battery inside the fuse terminal and it still works. the battery is 5 months new... any suggestions as to what could be the problem. I'm more annoyed than worried and would like to avoid the dealership if at all possible; I'm Sure someone on here could steer me in the right direction. Thanks for your time!

 

Just because the battery is only 5 months old, doesn't mean it's any good. Start with a voltage tester and check the voltage across the terminals. If that checks out good (12.5V or so), then I suggest you check the tightness of the terminal connections. Try to start it again, making sure the clutch pedal is solidly on the floor. However, if you still get no power to anything and you have battery voltage, perhaps one of your battery cables is bad or broken or disconnected at the end you can't see.

Try getting a jump from another vehicle. Do you get electricity? Try starting it.

 

There's a 100 amp fuse in the under hood fuse box. I'd check it. Fuse 41 and 42. They feed the entire car.

If your starter got stuck into the on position, it'll drain the battery and probably melt the starter. I think that's unlikely though.

Look at page 4-4 in the shop manual.

 

I went to disconnect and reconnect the battery and.... THE WIERDEST THING occured. Somehow.... through no physical tampering of mine, the negative terminal had frayed and become disconnected at the spot where the wire attaches to the metal bit which is screwed into the chassis. thus, NO power! When I saw it... I doubled over! How this could happen without me tampering at all with the battery, or anyone else to my knowledge is beyond me. I re-did the connection and all is well nowadays. Thanks for the help, and I am sincerely embarrased!

 

thats odd, how could that have happened? do you need to replace your factory battery cables

 

If you move or bend a wire repeatedly over time, you can break the wire one by one in a strand of wires. Do you detail your engine bay a lot and find yourself moving the cable out of the way? Perhaps it was a bad cable to begin with and the engine vibration weakened it.

 

I've had that happen before, but only on a car much older than yours.

On my truck it would kep coming loose every week or so, I just bought a new terminal and IIRC crimped a ring connector onto the ground, then hooked it back up. This was probably 5-6 years ago though so I can't recall exactly what I did.

 

there's a ghost messin with you.

 

Wow, good thing the damage was visible. I had the starter cable on my MR2 short out on me and almost caught the car on fire. I didnt have as much luck as you because the mechanics couldnt find the short. I ended up selling it.

 

Well, I was very lucky, but the reason, I think, the cord became disconnected is either someone did it to me as a prank (I would think this because the fray was so clean and not a messy over time frayed look), or that since my battery doesn't sit in a true battery holder belted down tray it wiggled so much while driving that it eventually broke. I think what most likely happened, though, is that I had the car serviced and they put the battery back with this piece cut off or disconnected, and that it was connected via some other, semi incorrect method of scrunching it and that is the thing that came disconnected. pahhh, its done now.