YES or NO

[blinkey]

    Please answer Yes or No,,, A car can have an intermitant electrical problem, some say YES some say NO,,tell us your story

[Baldwinvette77]

Yes my 70 cutlass had a weird no start problem, it would start fine in the morning but after shutting it off, it wouldnt start again, the starter solenoid was being desoldered by the exhaust manifold and i'd have to wait for it to cool and resolder itself,

i had just installed a new nuetral safety switch the week before and though it was the problem, almost drove me crazy 

[flyinlow]

Yes.

Intermitant  electrical problems are the Hillary Clinton of electrical problems. You know something is wrong, you know you can not trust her....I mean the car, but it is hard to prove what's wrong.

For example, my son's daily driver GM 3.8 would quit after about 20 miles. Never with me though (it knows I have a large selection of hammers). Heated the ignition module with a hair dryer and the engine quit. Replaced.

Hard failures are easier to fix.

[nvrbdn]

yes. I would take off driving and all of a sudden it would die. I would look at a few things, then it would fire back up. then one day I was gona take her to a car show and she wouldn't start. took the cougar instead. got home she fired up. turned out to be the main power wire in the bulkhead connector. After inspection, it had been arcing for some time and had melted the edges of the plastic.

[crj1968]

Yes, mine has one now.

Maybe the NO crowd is saying that there's no such thing as an intermittent problem, as a problem is a problem period. 

[68X426]

No to intermitant.

Yes to intermittent.

My life is an intermittent problem, why would my car be any different? 

[b5blue]

  Certainly YES. After many years of running ignition off a separate switch I overhauled my 70's column and installed a new ignition switch. Fine for awhile a year later I put the car in daily use to go to and from work.
First the car stopped cranking the starter. I "field hacked" my solenoid and washer switch together so it was a start switch with a section of extension cord. (Worked fine the NSS was never working.)
A few months later the car would randomly not start. It would crank fine, voltage was everywhere it should be. I'd crank and crank and check and check, swapped out ECU's, coils, pulled dizzy did checks and in desperation took a 20 amp wall switch from home depot and made a jumper from battery to ignition.
So now I have a home wall switch hanging down from my dash and push the wash switch to crank. It worked, the engine instantly fired right up every single time. After testing this silly combo for 60 days it was 100% reliable. (?)
I bought a new ignition switch and plugged it in without installing in the column leaving my jumpers in place and everything worked so I tie wrapped it under the dash for testing. The car again had an intermittent issue where went hot, just a few times it would crank longer than normal before starting?
Pissed for 90 days I pulled the entire (Previously cleaned and inspected.) bulkhead connector assembly loose, removed the entire engine harness and tore the column down. The switch had had 2 fails, the big red main wire connector was loose in contact to it's mate in the dash harness, that gave weak load capacity and the switch "reach" to crank position was just short of "contact". When I cut up the engine harness for inspection I found a hidden splice in the ignition wires where someone put a much smaller 3 inch section of wire crimped in place? So that acted as a resistor or choke for current also.
The kicker was when I tug tested each wire on my NEW engine harness the ignition wire slid right out of it's connector having been poorly crimped. Had I not tested my new harness before installing I'd have installed another "It's gonna fail" problem.
A year later I installed new head, tail and dash harness with a new radio while at it. Having thoroughly examined and tested all new harnesses everything worked but after a few days the radio would bip off but then come back on. Again eventually I found that darn big red main feed to ignition to be just loose enough that just the radio detected interruption of +12V.
My Dad was an Electrical Engineer so I have been soldering and building electrical stuff since a kid. I'm USAF trained in maintaining and installing nav. systems and have many years of all types of equipment/machine/home/commercial/auto and marine install/maintain experience. By "fixing" my car I broke it. That one silly "ignition only" switch/wiring I added 21 years ago saved the car till I had time and resource to find and repair properly. Never think just because something is new it can't be the problem.   
       

[b5blue]

By the way I did away with that pure crap big red connection for column switch cars, there is no way the thin tube type connection will hold a 40amp draw in daily use. I suspect the original factory connectors were much better than what is available today. 

[Bronzedodge]

Very much YES.  My Demon had a bad coil many years ago - only would act up on a hot restart, after running for an hour or two.  Lift the hood to let it cool faster and it would work.

[XH29N0G]

Yes, in my case a loose connection between the key and the harness would cause the engine to shut off, but for some reason the connection ended up being remade a number of times shortly after it was broken. The first time it happened while driving.  The engine shut off completely for a second or two, several times while driving on the highway.  It would catch and start up immediately.  It then ran fine all the way home and the next few weeks. I found the problem when it came back.

[alfaitalia]

Of course.....any one who says they have not had an intermittent electrical problem has probably never actually owned a car! I run an 04 Grand Cherokee....So of course I have them all the time. That what happens when you buy a vehicle from a company that uses wire with the flexibility of uncooked spaghetti!

[ws23rt]

I'm interested in hearing from those that say no.

My guess is that of all intermittent problems that arise in a car -electrical connections would top the list.
A bad ground would account for the bulk of them.

It's like this-- When some smoke comes out of the wires things can still work. (if not all of the smoke gets out).
An electrical connection can heal it's self by re establishing contact through welding.---This blocks the path for the smoke to get out.---

All is well until that weld breaks again.

BTW when all the smoke is gone the problem is no longer intermittent.  

[NHCharger]

Had a "Yes" for twenty years with my 71 Charger.

[XS29L9Bxxxxxx]

Yes. Moisture or corrosion driven, mostly. Or loose connections, or... 

[Kern Dog]

Say no to drugs.

[daveco]

Yes.
Most definitely, yes. 

[RallyeMike]

Sure... I have one right now on my 05 Ram. Right blinker light in front sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. I just don't turn right anymore and everything seems to be fine.

[68 RT]

Yes!

[toocheaptosmoke]

On my '88 F150 it developed a problem where the engine would cut out for a second when you hit the high beams.  But not every time, and only when you hadn't switched the high beams for at least 5 minutes.  After the first time when the engine would stutter, you could hit the lights all you wanted and it wouldn't do it again.  Wait 5 minutes, and it would stutter.  One time the truck completely died, wouldn't fire, a few minutes later it started up and ran fine.    Eventually traced it to a bad chassis ground from the battery to the truck cab, the ECM was getting a voltage spike during the high beam change that was causing it to cut out. 

[tan top]

 YES   ,
old brittle wiring , cracking breaking inside , giving a intermittent fault  , example  with movement of  the motor / heat cycles / vibration .
loose corroded  connections .
bad grounding ,
chaffed wires ,
rusty fuses / fuse holders in fuse box ( no joke )
  anything can happen  , then  factor in  , previous owners  over the last 45 plus years , doing jerry rigged repairs  , with poor connections  , like those stupid twist type & scotch locks ,  etc
messing with original wiring , is a waste of time IMO  ,  rip it all out & replace it all  

[mopar0166]

yes if course, it could be as simple as a ground problem

[b5blue]

YES   ,
old brittle wiring , cracking breaking inside , giving a intermittent fault  , example  with movement of  the motor / heat cycles / vibration .
loose corroded  connections .
bad grounding ,
chaffed wires ,
rusty fuses / fuse holders in fuse box ( no joke )
  anything can happen  , then  factor in  , previous owners  over the last 45 plus years , doing jerry rigged repairs  , with poor connections  , like those stupid twist type & scotch locks ,  etc
messing with original wiring , is a waste of time IMO  ,  rip it all out & replace it all  

Yup Tan Top...my story was what had me buy all new and test every inch, before AND after!

[Polygon]

Yes...

For example, my old beater dodge Diplomat, after a while, a wire rubbed through, hitting  ground. and over time, I burned through three batteries (this goes back 25 years),.

finally, after a long look, I found the wire, and replaced it. no more problems.

#2, my dakota had the head replaced under warranty. (1997. 2.5L). anyway, the wire that went to the crankshaft positon sensor was not put back in the clip. So, again, over time, it hit the exhaust..and...s...l..o..w..l..y would act up. found burnt wire, no more problem...and the dealer reimbursed me for it!

#3, the relay to my 1988 Jeep comanche (relay for fuel pump) would act up. drive all day then cut out for a few seconds. Replaces the relay, no more problems. good truck too. had the same 2.5l.

[ITSA426]

Yes, I drive a first generation Charger.  They were pretty advanced in the day but sometimes they seem like a rolling intermittent electrical problem if they haven't been on the road for a while.  Great cars once you get the bugs worked out.  I used to cringe waiting for the headlights to open when it would get dark at a car show.  All better now.

[Troy]

I worked for a company using electrical sensors on our machines. The electronic gurus who designed the sensors said that nearly all electrical issues were mechanical (ie, loose wires or shorts due to cut insulation).

My Challenger had a loose power wire inside the dash at the bulkhead that caused random stalling and rough running for months. Visually it looked great and, most of the time, it passed a voltage test with flying colors.

Here in the rust belt wires and grounds are nearly always corroded and having "just enough" voltage does all sorts of fun things to your car.

Troy

[6bblgt]

YES!

have you ever owned a "LEAN BURN" equipped vehicle?