So i'm having recent issues with my 89 GTA with starting, or getting any kind of power. First it happened after work 2 days ago, i went to start it and nothing happened. no dome light, no head light, no fuel pump, nothing. nothing except my door poppers and my auxiliary aftermarket radiator fan. I let it sit for a couple hours, got a jumper pack and hooked it up. first time i got nothing. sat for 5 more minutes, started right up.

Last night, i'm dropping my girlfriend off at her house and shut the car down to open the hatch. Bad mistake. get in it to leave, dome lights and everything come on, turn the key, it cranks 2 times over and then everything shuts down. back to no power again. And we hear a mysterious clicking noise coming from the engine bay also. Let it sit there over night, her grandpa comes out, and it fires right up for him.

so my question is...does anyone think that this has something to do with a security system? i didn't even know cars this old had a security system like that other than VATs. It wouldn't make any sense if it were a bad ground because if a ground is bad, than it's always bad, not on and off. And the battery is fairly new too and we tested and it tested good. any thoughts? i'm scared to shut it off haha.

i also noticed my temp gauge quit working now too

 

check for corrosion at the battery terminal clamps where the heavy gauge wire goes in.
I had identical symptom fairly recently. I ended up replacing the terminal clamp and cleaning the thick copper wire real good.
Just one of the possibilities I thought of.
Other one was a bad ground.
However that way nothing would work. But with the corrosion on the + side could still run some sort of small power draw.
Have you noticed if there might be an ambient temperature relative to the symptom?
Just wondering if maybe expansion or contraction of the clamp to wire might be enough to trigger a fail.
I hope I was able to help. If not, possibly prevented a future crisis from happening.

 

Thank you. Your input helped! but i think i'll rule out the bad ground just for the simple fact that it's intermittent so it happens on and off. bad ground is a bad ground and won't work til you fix it. but i haven't noticed any special temp. first time it happened it was the middle of the day about 80 some degrees. the other time was at midnight and probably in the lower 70's.

 

dude my car id doign the EXACT same thing, my problem is the negetive ground on the battery, be sure to check ur terminals.

 

Won't be VATS related - when there's a VATS issue, starter solenoid won't click, and all the regular dome lights radio, etc. will still work - VATS only cuts out power to injectors and starting circuit.

I'd check grounds and battery terminals as stated. Any vibration can affect a ground connection, same as any other connection - just you opening and closing the door can make a loose ground mess things up. They are referring to the large ground wires, not necessarily tracing a small ground issue. Your neg battery term will have one large wire to engine, and one smaller wire to fenderwell at battery - make sure these are tight connection, remove screw and hit the fender with a small piece of sandpaper. Then there is a groundstrap usually off the rear of the pass head to the firewall - make sure it has a good connection at the head and sand that spot on the firewall as well. Get rid of any corrosion on batt terminals, and if there is corrosion get some dielectric grease on those terminals to reduce corrosion buildup.

 

Don't be so quick to dismiss a bad ground. "A bad ground is a bad ground" is a bad statement to make. Bad grounds come come & go, with simple vibration on an "almost connected" connection. Start with taking both battery terminals loose. Don't simply look at them. Clean them & dab some of tat diaelectric grease on them. It can only help, not hurt. Then check the ground strap. Check the positive side connection to the starter. That can't urt either, while your chasing power issues.

More than once, I've seen people chase problems like crazy, only to finally find it was a simple power or ground supply connection at the battery or chassis.