I was driving through a parking lot when my car suddenly quit. No noise, no pop, nothing. it just shut down. All electrical systems are dead except for my headlights, horn, and hatch release. turning the key does nothing, the gauges are dead and so are the windows and hatch motor. the battery is good, the connections are good, and i obviously have good voltage as the headlights are nice and bright. I just had to have it towed home and now i dont know where to begin. I tried a search but to no avail. Is there a fusable link somewhere that could cause this? All underdash fuses are intact. My windows are down, and my hatch is open and i cant even lock up my car. This is a very serious problem as this is my only car. Can someone please point me in the right direction? I really need to fix this soon because the car is outdoors with the windows down and the hatch up!

 

search for a vats bypass, I think thats the problem.

 

my car doesnt have vats. and even if it did and it was malfunctioning, my hatch motor and gauges and windows would still work. i think its deeper than that

 

main grounds on the back of your cylinder heads...

 

Roc85

1) Get a DVM - check All fuses. (They are OK per your post)
2) There is a fuse link that supplies main DC power bus at the starter. If that went you would not have any power at all.
3) If you are getting DC at the fuse panel then most likely ignition key cylinder (electrical portion) expired. I bet that you still have emergency blinker, brakes, dome light, dash lights, and headlights functionning.

//RF

 

Yeah, I'd suggest checking down at the starter motor. There's about 3 or 4 fusible links down there.

 

well it turns out it was a fuseable link. but i dont see why it blew, theres nothing wrong with my wiring. none of my fuses blew and i dont see a short anywhere. could this just have blown due to age? im a bit skeptical now, i dont want to have this happen again because there is no way i can fix it by the side of the road. whats the deal here?

 

It takes a lot of current to blow a fuse link!

I would check wiring harness between fuse-link and bulkhead. It is possible that you may have pinched/shorted main bus wire inside the harness loom against engine ground.
So take the time, disconnect battery, get a DVM and wiggle harness while keeping an eye on it.

//RF

 

It's possible that it blew due to a short, but it's equally possible that the wires just broke inside the fusible link section. The insulation on fusible links is a lot softer than normal wiring insulation, and I've seen quite a few of them just disentegrate with age. The softer insualtion allows more flexing and vibration to occur, which can cause the inner wires to break eventually. I've wiggled them before, and could see the loose part where the wires were broke inside. Other times, it's just corrosion inside where the black, round part is. If you're really worried about it, do as RFmaster suggested, and use a mulitmeter to check for shorts. Personally, I hate chasing wiring problems, so I'd just replace it and drive it. If it blew again, then I'd get out the meter.

 

well i couldnt find a short so i just replaced it. no problems for now anyway. thanks guys...