Almost a year ago my dad bought me a 1995 monte carlo. He is an airplane mechanic/inspector and VERY knowledgable about cars. When we bought the car we swapped batteries with my bonneville that I had at the time so the battery in my MC is still fairly new having been replaced a little more than a year ago.

About two months ago we replaced the starter after having some problems with it. About two weeks ago I got in my car after work and started it up with no cranking problems at all but immediately after starting the radio and lights went off and on a few times and the radio reset itself. I thought maybe a weak battery but my dad thought it was a ground wire going bad.

The next day my car started up fine, and drove great. I was runnng errands and stopped several places. At one of my stops I got back in and tried to start my car but got nothing.

I had no lights, no radio, my trunk wouldn't pop and my doors had to be locked manually. I got a jump and it started right up by as soon as we removed the cables it started running really rough and died again. We hooked them back up and let it sit for a while and then it ran fine. The next place I stopped I left it running, but at my last stop as I pulled into the parking spot and was putting It into park it died.

My dad tried to jump it but no matter what we did it would die as soon as the jumper cables were removed. Later that night my dad and brother went back to try and get my car and after several attempts got it to run. My dad said on the 20 min drive home it drove fine.

Once they got it go e they removed the battery, alternator, and starter and had them checked, and they all checked out fine. They removed a very small amount of corrosion from one I the battery cables and then it ran fine. My dad said he tried to get it to mess up and he couldn't.

The next day I was on my way to work and was turning left I pulled out waiting for the last car to pass and it died again. I had up flashers, no power, nothing. I tried several times and got nothing so I sat there with it in the on position waiting for my dad to come get me when the radio came back on and I was able to start it just fine. I went back home and it has been parked here since. My dad and brother have replaced both the positive and negative battery cables, along with checking the battery, alternator, starter, all fuses, along with a whole bunch of other wires and relays and found nothing.

Tomorrow my dad is planning on checking the theft deterrent relay because I have had some problems recently withpeople at working messing with my car and removing and loosening lug nuts to the point that I almost lost a tire going 75 on the interstate. I have also been using an ignition key that doesn't quite fit right so I kind of have to jiggle it in and out to get it to work.

After checking this we have no clue what else to except take it to the shop and let them figure it out(which my dad never does).

Can you think of anything else we should check first? Maybe something that you know of that someone who hates me could have easily done to cause these problems, or maybe we could be missing a relay or wire.

I appreciate any suggestions! Thank you so much!!!!

 

it kinda sounds like your BCM ( Body Control Module ) is going out on you. Others will chime in and later this morning. Maybe they have more answers.

 

Here's the part I hate. An OBD1 car and the need to be diagnosed...

I agree that it could be the BCM, but on that older model I just don't know for sure. Usually some symptoms for a bad BCM is erratic electronic failures that may not always happen.

 

I was thinking your alternator is dying/ dead, but you said you checked that out... I've had a few of these problems and they all ended up being something easy(er) for me to fix. First my alternator decided to stop working, and i lost a lot of small power, but could get it to start a few times. Then all the "Luxury" things stopped working like the electronic door locks, and auxillary bulbs wouldnt turn on, it turned out to be a fuse! So I would check over all the smaller things to see if it was a few things you might've possibly overlooked. Just a thought