98 Intermittent loss of all electrical power

[MI-Crawfish]

98 GP, 3800 4-cyl, 160k miles.

The car died while my wife was pulling into the driveway, apparently as a result of the loss of electrical power. No power at cigarette lighter, no lights inside or out, and the speedo was stuck at the speed she was traveling at the time it died.

Battery checked at 12.5 volts. After sitting for a few minutes, lights flickered on, and I could start it. I quickly moved it out of the middle of the driveway and checked the alternator output = 14.5 volts. After shutting her down and sitting there, power went back off, then back on at random times a few minutes apart.

I don't want to use the car, as it appears there is still an intermittent problem, which I would not want to occur with my wife driving down the road. The car has a remote starter installed, but that stopped working about a year ago.

The only things I can think of would be the remote starter interfering with something, or bad battery cables/connections. The terminals seemed to be tight. Can you think of anything else?

Thanks,
Brian

[maxwedge]

First thing is confirm good grounds at both ends as well as bat pos connections at both ends.

[BNaylor]

You might consider running some voltage checks at the engine compartment fuse box too. Check 12v at IGN 1 and IGN 2. Also, what is known as the cranking relay which controls the starter solenoid (S input).

In a worse case scenario you could have a flaky ignition switch and harness which is a common problem on aged Grand Prixs.

[ponchonutty]

The most common thing I've seen in the shop with a car with that many miles or if you have a lot of things on your keychain is a worn key cylinder.

[richtazz]

IF the remote start quit working remove it. It could be acting up causing all your problems. I had a 91 that did the same thing your's is doing, and it was the remote start unit (that I didn't even know was there until I pulled the hush panel to inspect the column). Took it all out and the problem went away. Like bnaylor and ponch said, the ignition switch (the electrical part) is a known issue on 97- up GP's, and big bulky key chains do really bad things to ignition key cylinders.

[nepfan2004]

i have a 98 grand prix gt 3800 v6 and one morning i was going to start my car and it would barley crank the starter and then after a little bit of this, it started fine and everytime after that i started it, it started fine. does anybody know what it could be.