i have a 93 sc300 and i have this electrical problem that drives me nuts!
when driving the headlights flicker when i step on the brakes, turn on the blinker, or use the moon roof. also when driving or turning on the hazzard lights while the car is on....my cd player shuts off and turns back on a second later, the intrument cluster lights almost turn off and then back on with the battery light and the abs lights on for a split second, sometimes my clock gets reset to 1:00. i had my fuse and groundwiring checked but was told its not the problem.

i read the posts from other members who had simular problems but didnt find a clear solution or causes. i had my aftermarket spoiler brake light attached to the fuse while the back window brakelight was disconnected...6mo later i have this electrical problem. could this be part of the problem?

 

Same thing we've told the 100 other threads, redo all your grounds and it'll be solved. No one checks ALL the grounds, so whoever "checked" them did not check ALL of them.

 

koo easy fix..... hope it works for ya

 

This is spooky; I experienced the exact same problem last week, here in Sydney.

I searched this forum and soarercentral.com, and it appears to be a really common problem.

I cleaned the area where the ground cable bolts into the body behind the battery, cleaned the bolt and it now seems fine.

 

Also check the body ground in driver's side footwell under the carpet.

 

Does anyone have a schemetic of all the grounds?

 

Just had a quick question for you guys. When my turn signal is on, with each blink you can see the dashboard dim along with it, however when im playing my stereo, and the bass hits, nothing dims at all? Im assuming its the battery, but if it is, why doesnt it dim when the bass hits as well?

 

If you have cleaned all the grounds and the battery is good, you can also check the alternator. As for me I had the same symptoms and it turns out that a wire from my aftermarket alarm was pinched everytime I shut the hood strut causing it to expose the wire. I used some electrical tape to seal it back up and it has been fine for over a week. If it resurfaces again I am going to checkout the alternator.

 

Glad to have finally found an answer. Though there are 100 apparent posts on this issue, I haven't found one until I came across this one.

My issue is EXACTLY the same as BlackSC300 had mentioned:

-Headlights flicker when 4ways or signal lights are on
-Headlights get progressively dim unless I'm stopped at a light or in neutral and holding over 1000-1500 rpm
-Clock resets to 1:00
-Radio loses sound and backlight begins to flicker on/off
-ABS light flickers, along with dashlights and battery light flickers on/off momentarily.

It's 5am and I'm on my way to work. Going to go clean my battery posts (pos. connection has some buildup on it) and check out those grounds that were mentioned. I'll post with the results. HOpefully this will work because I don't want to spend a ton of money on it.

 

Try replacing the negative battery cable from a 93-97 gs300 (~$80). I did that and it has been fine ever since. Although, my "D" light on the cluster still blinks a tad when I signal and the volume on the oem stereo still goes down slightly when I turn my headlights on. I might intall a grounding kit to fix those issues if I come across one for a good deal. I previously had all those same issues mentioned above and have not had them since.

 

I had this problem befor. I replace negative battery cable, got grounding kit and sand down the ground connection. Fix all my problem.

 

UPDATE:

I Haven't had any issues with the car today. Went out this morning, didn't have time to check the grounds located under the d/s carpet, or behind the battery. However, I did clean off some of the muck building up on the pos. battery cable and post. This seems to have resolved the situation for now.

We'll see tomorrow morning how things pan out.

 

FURTHER UPDATE:

Been a couple days since I cleaned the crud off the pos. battery terminal. Maybe you hardcore greasemonkey's can critique my theory that the buildup creates an impediment to current flowing to/from the battery. It seems that the problem is magnified when more demand is placed on the electrical system (ie. at a red light, car is idling, stereo on, ac on, lights on, signal on, etc) and diminishes once the car gets going (as alt. kicks in to provide more juice). I'm guessing that over time, this will deplete the battery of it's reserves causing the lights to dim until the cars battery light shoots up and starts to **** the driver off.

As for the grounds, that's the next thing I'm checking over when I get the chance or if the problem resurfaces, whatever comes first.

Anybody with more insight into my theory? Or am I out to lunch...