92 Seville Surprising Problems..?

[ApplesareRed]

I have a 1992 Seville with 151,000 Miles on it. I drive very very minimally and I always change the oil every 3,000 miles and I always use Premium Fuel. I treat this car very well considering how old it is.

I drove the car home last night from a friends house and it was fine, no problems. Today, I go out to start it, and the ABS Light is on, The "Service Engine Soon" light is on, the entire digital dash won't turn on, nor will the Tachometer or Speedometer give any kind of readout.

It idle'd rough at start up and I put some dry gas into it...that seemed to fix that problem within 20-30 seconds.

The real problem, is when I put it into gear. In reverse, it backs up fine, as if there's no problem in the world...but when I put it into drive, I have to depress the gas pedal nearly to the floor to get the car to move, and you can hear the engine revving up too.

Any idea's on what it is ? I Have no digital read out so I can't check the codes...and it just suddenly happened in a span of about 6 hours (Last night till this early morning).

Thanks for any input !

[DFBonnett]

Clean the battery terminals and as many grounds as you can acccess. Check the voltage across the terminals with a meter. The comps in these cars are known to perform strangely if battery voltage is low. Also check the main ground near the starter motor.

[ApplesareRed]

So am I right to believe that lack of power to the onboard computer system would affect the power to the wheels and/or the drivetrain ? The car moves forward when given significant gas (Likely up to 4,000-5,000 RPMs if the Tach worked).

I'll be cleaning the battery off in the daylight tomorrow, I just can't reasonbly understand in my head what would cause the problem so suddenly, within the span of a few hours....could water have gotten into the computer ?

[DFBonnett]

It's not likely you have water in the comp. It's up under the dash behind the glove box. Speaking of the comp, you might want to unplug then reconnect the connections on that. A bad connection there can give you fits.
As far as the sudden onset goes, a precipitous battery failure or connection problem such as corrosion under the insulation of the battery cables can be developing over time but only exhibit symptoms suddenly. It's a bit akin to the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.