As the title says, there is no power to my camaro. No lights, no dash, no radio, nothing. Absolutely nothing. Brand new battery, brand new alternator. No nicks, cuts, scores, etc in the wiring. I have no dash, no lights, nothing. It's as if the battery is disconnected which I know it isn't.

Took the battery and alternator back to advance to have them exchange them (They tested the battery, it was dead. Tested the alt, it was dead.) Brought the second battery and alternator home, hooked them up, same problem. No power at all. As if the battery is completely disconnected. Took them both back to Advance, tested the alt, it passed 3 times in a row. Battery was at 90% charge.

So what could my problem be? Should I stop looking at the battery and alternator and possibly look further down to my starter? If I have a dead starter would it do that to my car? Cause it to have no power at all? I know when i turn the ignition to -On- it send power to my solenoid which them sends more power to everything else to kick the motor over and such. So if the starter is dead, its not sending out that power.. which in turn could cause this whole schebang?

Now were down to 1 vehicle, since my truck decided to die out on me as well (ignition switch, fuel pump). And my wife isn't to keen on me taking her car.

 

Well since you're not getting any lights or anything at all from the dash I would assume a wiring issue.

 

The sequence of events you listed is not correct. The ignition key tells the PCM to operates the start relay, the start relay powers the solenoid coil, the solenoid operates the Bendix drive which engages the starter to the flywheel and also closes a large contact that connects the + battery cable to the starter motor. In other words, the starter does not send electrical power to anything.
Check the fusible links, they can burn out internally and look OK from the outside. Check both ends of the battery cables for good clean connections, including the ground connections. Inspect the cable clamps, with age they tend to corrode and make poor connection with the cable.

 

The most likely thing would be a bad power or ground battery cable. The power for the fuse box breaks off the main battery cable at the battery connector.

About half the fuse box is direct wire from the battery the other half of the fuse box is powered but the ignition switch. Step one would be to check why you are not getting power to the fuse box to all the stuff that works all the time like the lighter or head lights. This is a simple circuit it is either missing power or gound.

 

I was going by what I read online bout the power sequence. I wasn't positive on whether or not it was correct. Thanks for letting me know. Both battery terminals are new, I change them whenever I change batteries in any vehicle. Its usually worth the $6 to know they are clean and corrosion free.

How do i check the fusible links?

@Gorn, I initially thought maybe my ground came loose or broke, so i traced the wiring and checked them all. All was good to go. So you're saying I should be looking at my fuse box for a possible short?

 

You can test the links with a voltmeter or a test light. One end of the link is directly connected to battery and always has 12 volt, the other end connects to the load and always has 12 volts. When the link burns out it will have 12 Volt on one end and nothing on the other. They look like short sections of brown wire. There is a small red covered terminal box in the left side of the engine compartment where a positive cable connects to all the links.

 

i found it. it was a link. I swapped it out and ran into another problem. Went to start it, it cranked but had no start. Sounded like it was gas starved. Which means that the little corner i cut, was a big mistake. I never drained the old gas out of it. I just dumped some gas treatment and fresh gas on top the old hoping it would be a permanent fix. Guess not lol

 

Where was the link at? I'm having the exact problem and am only able to find a link near the master cylinder area, thanks.

 

What year car do you have? The model year will determine where they are located and if the link has blown, you need to find the cause of why it blew..

 

im having the same issue though i haven't replaced my cables yet i have a second gen 1979 base model thats not getting power what so every at the moment. battery good fuses all good turn key and nothing