vehicle shut down at highway speed

[nobitanobi]

Hey all, my car (97 133,###) shut down on highway today at ~60mph. The windshield wiper stuck in the middle of the windshield (it was raining heavy). I lost all power for a sec or two and lost steering completely. I had to turn the wheel hard to the shoulder to avoid traffic. Tach was at 0, speed went dwon from 60 to 0 in 10 sec. I restarted the car on the shoulder and drove about 20 more miles back home at 60 without problem.

My battery should be good, 0 corrosion, there is something wrong with the electrical system i think.

If it weren't for the rain, I would have got rear ended at 60 in the middle of the highway.

SO WHAT ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS/IDEAS OUT THERE?

Thanks!!!

[Qslim]

Originally Posted by nobitanobi

Hey all, my car (97 133,###) shut down on highway today at ~60mph. The windshield wiper stuck in the middle of the windshield (it was raining heavy). I lost all power for a sec or two and lost steering completely. I had to turn the wheel hard to the shoulder to avoid traffic. Tach was at 0, speed went dwon from 60 to 0 in 10 sec. I restarted the car on the shoulder and drove about 20 more miles back home at 60 without problem.

My battery should be good, 0 corrosion, there is something wrong with the electrical system i think.

If it weren't for the rain, I would have got rear ended at 60 in the middle of the highway.

SO WHAT ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS/IDEAS OUT THERE?

Thanks!!!

Well yeah, the battery should be good, but have you checked it? I would suspect a bad ground somewhere if you had everything blink out for a second. Check all the grounds in the engine compartment, particularly the main one. And the battery.

[toyomoho]

Not sure about the exact wiring for this year.

If the engine quits the power steering pump will also stop turning, hence the hard steering.

Both engine electrical power and wiper motor power comes from the battery through a fusible link and 100A Alt fuse. Power to each appears to run through two separate switches within the ign switch (the switch has two separate switches).

Thus the issue may be forward of the ign switch.

Suggest checking the battery cables for damage, bad ground, fusible link and 100A fuse circuits. Sometimes an electrical plug such as running to the ign switch can corrode causing strange problems.

The fuse boxes are in engine compartment, drivers side.

[SkinnyConHeo]

Might be corrosion on the battery.
This morning I went to start my car and the car was dead.
I popped the hood and checked the battery and sure enough the + and - poles were corroded.
I filed them a bit and bought new connectors and runs fine now.