2007 Hyundai Sonata. Today at work the ‘esc off’ light came on, which is the emergency traction light. So I assumed this was related to a flat tire I got a couple weeks ago, supposedly if one tire has too little air pressure it can confuse the system.
Like I said, this started today. It happened a few other times, then when I was driving tonight my car got all fucked up. Several lights came on in the dashboard. First the ‘check engine light’. Then the seatbelt light (despite me wearing my seatbelt’, the battery light, the airbag light, the esc off light, and I think a couple others I’ve forgotten. Also the lights started dimming, the radio stopped working and then came on again.
It was running on the interstate, but once I had to slow down to hit the exit light, the car died. It was running at about 5mph, then I shut it off, and it wouldn’t start up again. The lights just flickered when I tried. I also smelled something burning in the car, I assume something electrical just fried.
I’m hoping its just a bad alternator and replacing that will fix it. But I spoke to someone who is a mechanic, he said it may be that the voltage regulator got fucked up, and put out too much voltage and fried the entire car’s electronics.
Hopefully it’s something simple as you’re past the 60K miles / 6 year bumper-to-bumper warranty. The 100K/10Y is only for the powertrain. I have a 2007 Kia which had a speedometer issue just over 60K miles, but Kia fixed it for free.
If does sound more like a bad alternator. I doubt that it fried everything.
Your voltage regulator is almost certainly integral to your alternator, so it probably isn’t that. If you could smell burning inside your passenger compartment, I’d suggest looking at the fuse block or the control module where your relays are first. There’s probably a short somewhere and that caused something to let its smoke out.
Unless you are handy with a multimeter, it’s time to take it to the shop.
This reminds me of the time in high school where I was driving my mom’s Pontiac Sunbird. I hit a rather big pothole and the car did pretty much what the OP’s did. The electrical started going down, there was a bit of a burning smell, and then the car died. It turned out that the alternator itself got loose and the belt was burning as it wasn’t spinning in the right spot. Three minutes with a wrench and it was back up and running.
Over the course of about 5 miles various lights started coming on. First the check engine light, then the battery light, then various others (brake light icon on the dash, esc off light, seat belt light).
I have no idea. I have to wait until saturday to get it looked at. This sucks hard. I’m hoping its a simple fix (simple <=$300) but it may be a lot more than that. A remanufactured alternator with install is not terrible, but I hope it didn’t damage any of hte electronics. That is even assuming the alternator is the problem.
A multimeter is always a good investment. Sears (among other places) has some decent models for $30-50 and they have myriad uses besides your car. They also come with basic instructions on how to use them and some items which you can check on your vehicle.
I disagree. I jump started a Toyota (flat battery) the other day and the dash board DID “christmas tree” with all sorts of odd warnings when it came back to life…
It reminds of flicking the battery on “donkey kong”. Put it into konkey dong mode…
Flashing the charge off and on again can scramble the computers memory - without triggering the ‘reset at power on’ circuit…
If it is not the alternator or battery my first guess would be a loose connection at the main feed wire that comes into your fuse block, or somewhere in the main battery feed circuit.
I had a guy who does my mechanical work look at it. It started up fine, drove fine for a few minutes w/o any issues or warning lights, then all the warning lights came on again within 2 miles. So the car was jumped, then it only went 1/2 mile before all the lights came on.
So it sounds like a bad alternator. I just had a new battery put it in January of this year, and the battery should still be good (unless this alternator issue has destroyed it, which I hope not). I’m going to have him replace the alternator and see if that fixes it.
If it is a bad alternator, would this issue have done any long term damage to my (almost new) battery that would require that to be replaced too?
Sooo, I know that straight dope is fairly present on google. And I know that if someone goes online and types in ‘engine lights all came on then car died’ or something similar this thread may come up. So as an update if anyone ever cares, it was the alternator. I had an oil gasket leak which got oil into the alternator, shorting it out. A new gasket and a new (well remanufactured, it is hard finding new alternators for some reason) alternator and the car seems to be running fine ever since.
Actually, I appreciate that you came back and let us know! I like to have some idea in case something similar happens to my car. Hopefully it didn’t end up being too expensive.