Here's a stumper! ### ANSWER POSTED ###

[Jeremy airjer W]

I decided to print off a diagram of the starting circuit.

I think you'll need to give this up to help figure it out.

Major damage to the area of this problem, but it sounds like no electrical parts replaced?

Its irrelevant!

And you are correct. No parts where replaced to fix the problem.

[efgh]

Loose ground wire somewhere.

[Black_Bay]

Could the airbag, or replacing the airbag at the body shop, have loosened a wire in the steering column?

[Jeremy airjer W]

It could but it wouldn't explain all the symptoms.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Loose ground wire somewhere.

Nope. Bad grounds usually cause funky things to happen. The windshield wipers turn on when you roll down the passenger window for example. There is nothing funky besides the symptoms.

[Jameson]

...I left the key on (which was the big break in this one) and swapped those two relays again (rap and the crank relay). as soon as I pulled out the crank relay everything went dead again....

Its not the wiring...

Power was being run through the crank relay when it shouldn't have been. Wires hooked-up wrong?

[fishuhalik]

so when do we get to find out what it was? i have a feeling it's gonna be something really stupid & we're all trying to over-think it.

[Jeremy airjer W]

so when do we get to find out what it was? i have a feeling it's gonna be something really stupid & we're all trying to over-think it.

You are correct!

[SpecialK]

Loose wire on the starter?

[fishuhalik]

ok, i'm gonna say the key wasnt being pushed in all the way or something related to the key/ignition

[Farley]

E-stop was on

[ChuckN]

....as you were swapping the relays you found a tool from the body shop that shouldn't have been there, and making bad electrical problems occur!

[CAMAN]

The relay was somehow put in backwards?

[DTro]

It's something with the key, and some sort of timed thing. When he said he left the keys in he had a eureka moment.

Was it a valet key or something?

[CAMAN]

The key was being turned to ACC instead of Start/Run?

[Jeremy airjer W]

The closest correct answer would have to go to MacGyver.

It was the body shop guys that caused everything.

Week prior the customers duaghter had an accident that did some fairly substantial damage to the vehicle but not enought o total it. As I mentioned the drivers front was the worst from what I could tell and the under hood fuse box is righ up front in that area. The body shop had removed the the fuse lock in order to do the repairs. They had four out of the six connectors secured but failed to secure two of the main bulkheads. When I had the key on and the lights on and I went to take out the relay the fuse block moved just enough for those bulkheads to loose there connection and everything went dead. When I pushed down on the relay they made contact and everything is fine. I tightened up the two bolts that hold the bulkheads to the fuse lock and everything was fine.

I talked to the customer when they picked it up and asked them if it had stalled or acted funny since they got it back from the body shop and they said there was nothing else besides the no crank which happened once before.

The moral of the story, sometimes the weirdest problems have the simplest solutions!

[LMITOUT]

i have a feeling it's gonna be something really stupid & we're all trying to over-think it.

I guess so. All we had to do was blame the body shop to get it right!

[CAMAN]

Well I guess this led everyone astray...

Quote:

Its not the fuse block

[Jeremy airjer W]

Nope, there was nothing wrong ith the fuse block, it just wasn't "plugged in"

[ChuckN]

You were right, I looked into it too deep with this description.

Its not the fuse block

Its not the wiring