Well after three months of no electrical problems with my T/A I thought I had lucked out but I guess you haven't truly experienced a 3rd gen until you've battled 25 year old electrics. lol

Ok, so I haven't driven my '86 T/A for a couple weeks and today I tried to fire it up and the battery was dead. Which isn't that unusual, the battery in it isn't very good. So I went to charge it up and as soon as I started the charger I noticed the hazard lights pop on, which is very unusual. However the hazard lights aren't even on inside the car but it still flashes and dings like they are. I can get them to stop but as soon as I close the car door or bump the car at all they come back on! It seams like they just randomly came on at some point within the past couple weeks and killed the battery.

But it gets worse. The bigger problem is it seems like these phantom hazard lights are playing havoc with my cars brain and won't allow the car to start or come out of park. When those random hazard lights come on the transmission gear indicator lights blink in time with the hazard dinging. It won't come out of park, but yet it doesn't think that it's in park so it won't allow me to start it. It's just so strange how this all just randomly came out of nowhere after having zero issues it the past 3 months. I have no idea where to start!

I hope I described this all properly and somebody has some ideas of what might be going on. I'm concerned the old girl might have had it.

 

Sounds like a ground problem but I'm not sure where. Also could be a bad hazard flasher in the convenience center under the gauge cluster next to steering column. Hope that helps

 

Nah, it's an 86 Trans Am, trust me it's just getting started

Bad ground sounds like a possibility, although - are you sure the hazards aren't just switched on? Pull the aforementioned hazard relay, should stop 'em for now till u get it charged.

Could have any kind of odd electrical behaviour going on while the batt is undercharged, might be best to disconnect it and charge first before trying to troubleshoot problems.

 

Nope, the flashers weren't on. That's the strange thing. This just came out of the blue. The green arrows don't even blink like they normally should when its doing this. But if I switch them on then they work like normal. And I've already tried disconnecting the battery and charging it up but it started blinking and dinging just like before. I'm guessing these phantom hazards coming on is the cause of the dead battery in the first place.

Idk, why would the hazard lights have anything to do with the car not thinking it's in park thus not allowing itself to turn over? The blinking of the transmission gear indicator lights has me totally confused. But everything else in the car works like they should. lol

 

Anybody have any ideas on what I should do?

 

Check your grounds inside the center console maybe??

 

Just a thought. If the lights are blinking and it wont come out of park or turn on... Could it be someone had an anti-theft system in the car and it doesn't make sounds anymore just blinks and makes it so you can't drive away? That's my only thought short of tracing wires...

 

The gear indicator light is on the park light circuit. The only places I can think of where the park light and indicator light circuits intersect is through the front marker lights, which come on with the park lights but simultaneously flash if the blinkers/hazards are switched on.

Do the park lights flash like the gear indicator light does? Does switching the blinkers on make the gear indicator flash like the hazards do? Got a dim headlight? This has the behaviour of a ground problem, I would hazard a guess that a ground for the left or right front lights has gone intermittent. These grounds are located up around the radiator support somewhere I believe, wiggle any black wiring bolted to the frame that you can see.

Why the hazards are coming by themselves is odd, might be a problem with the hazard or combination switch in the column. Does wiggling the hazard switch change anything?

As for it not coming out of park, sounds like yet another separate issue with the park-lock cable, can't see how this would be connected with the hazards problem.

 

Screamin82, that's a good thought too.

 

Thank you guys so much for your input. Screamin82, you are my hero. lol Here's a bit of an update:

I had completely forgot then when I bought my car the guy had said it had an alarm but it was kind of finicky so he didn't use it anymore and cut the speaker itself. I guess I must have accidentally hit the set button at some point and since the speaker was cut I couldn't hear the alarm. Now it makes senses as to why it looked like the hazards were coming on every time I opened the door and why it she wouldn't start. Ughhh. lol So that problem is solved.

Now, like TreeFiddy said it looks as if the parking lock problem is a separate issue because it's still locked solid. Do you think you could elaborate what you were saying about the park-lock cable? Could that be my problem?

Thanks again guys!

 

Hey guys, one last update on my situation. Was going to take my center console out today and work on my park lock problem, but before I did I tried jiggling on the wheel/steering column a bit. Surprisingly that did the trick and she shifts in and out of gear no problem again. What I think might be happening is the teeth on my key are pretty wore down. Could it be that there's not enough key left to disengage the park lock safety feature?

Anyway I'm very relieved my girls up and running strong again! Thanks again for everyone's help!

 

The steering/shift interlock cable can do that at times. If you cant get the car out of park and the steering wheel is locked simply try moving the wheel a little while trying to move the shifter, happens more often when the wheel is locked at a weird angle.