After draining battery down my aftermarket alarm is acting strange

LAWMAN5643

MEMBER
1995 DODGE STRATUS
131,000 MILES

I'd like to know how to repair a floating ground. I have a 1995 Dodge stratus with an after market alarm system on it. Everything was working fine up until a few days ago when I left my dome light on & the battery drained down. After receiving a jump start to my vehicle my radio no longer works, my dome light no longer works, & my door locks button no longer works as well as my alarm system. Prior to receiving this jump start everything worked just fine, now everything is haywire. You can arm my alarm system however when you open a door the siren doesn't go off. Ironically once the car is started you can lock & unlock the doors using the alarm systems remote control. Also the vehicle won't shut off unless the parking brake is down, however it will start no matter what position the parking brake is in, up or down. A friend of mine told me I have what's called a floating ground, I have no idea what that is or how to fix it.

4 Replies

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,727 POSTS

You need a new friend!

The radio's memory fuse is blown from the surge of the jump-start. It is always tied in with some other circuit that is always live. The interior lights is the most common circuit. Look on the left end of the dash, as I recall, for the fuse box and look for the interior lights fuse. There are other fuses under the hood too.

A "floating ground" has a break in a ground circuit. That isn't going to occur from a jump-start.

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Wednesday, November 16th, 2011 AT 9:35 PM

FIXITMR

MECHANIC
9,990 POSTS

Sounds like it means a ground connection was lost somewhere and now it's seeking it's own replacement thru other circuits. There's a fella here known as caradiodoc that may have more info.

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Wednesday, November 16th, 2011 AT 9:39 PM

LAWMAN5643

MEMBER
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Thanks for the responses, after furthur investigation my buddy stuck a volt meter into the fuse holder for the door locks, radio, & dome light & discovered that there wasn't any power going to the circuit. SO I guess now the question is how do I fix that problem? It appears all the other fuse holders are working fine, it's just that one fuse holder that isn't receiving any power, also it that an expensive repair?

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Saturday, November 19th, 2011 AT 6:29 PM

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,727 POSTS

I'm using a '97 service manual but I think it's the same. There's multiple fuses for each circuit and the Body Computer is involved in some of them. Which fuse has no voltage? I found fuse 5, a 10 amp inside the car related to all your dead circuits but there could be more. If that fuse is blown, there should be 12 volts on one side of it AND the brake lights should work.

Fuse 4, a 20 amp under the hood feeds fuse 5 in the car. If fuse 4 is blown, there won't be any voltage to either side of fuse 5, and the brake lights won't work either. There's no need to work our way back further because the next fuse up the line would cause the engine to not run.

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Saturday, November 19th, 2011 AT 7:52 PM