[sasi stang]

Hey everyone! I'm new on here but I've had my stang for awhile, she is a2002 yellow v6. Sadly now it isn't working and I need some help. Last week due to rain and awful traction I ended up hitting a telephone pole only one street away from my apartment. Anyways luckily only minor damage to the front bumper and hood was the only cosmetic damage. I was able to drive the car home, but as soon as I parked it, I haven't been able to start the car. The lights don't come on and no clicking and I just got a new battery about 2 months ago. I tried reseting the emergency shut-off in the trunk but no change... any suggestions!

[braupe]

Check all the cables going to the battery, and check all under hood fuses. something may have come loose, or may have blown a fuse. Welcome to the site, and good luck.

[grover175]

If no lights or anything, first place I'd check is the connections on the battery, and possibly the battery itself,.. sometimes it doesn't take much impact to loosen up a battery cable.

Second thing would be to check the belt...

just my .02

[Nyt_Muves]

It could also be the battery itself. Sometimes an impact can short out the battery internally. A good enough jolt will crack an internal connection, or even cause the plates to shift and touch.

[94' cobra 351]

if no lights are coming on it has to be a bad battery or bad connection. The belt would have nothing to do with the electrical working. take your battery to a local autozone or whatever you have and they will test it for free

[sasi stang]

thanks for the advice! i'm gonna start checking the cables, hopefully that will fix it! i didn't even think about the battery shorting out!

[grover175]

Actually if the belt somehow broke, it would cause the remaining drive home to run off battery alone, with no charging, and completely discharge it.. making no lights etc.... I know this from a personal experience..............

[blueoval]

Originally Posted by grover175

Actually if the belt somehow broke, it would cause the remaining drive home to run off battery alone, with no charging, and completely discharge it.. making no lights etc.... I know this from a personal experience..............

Yes that is true and it would run hot and it wouldn't have any power steering either. But only a block away wouldnt drain a battery. Does anything electrical work, is your radio clock reading? I say if nothing works even something little like interior lights, then something is wrong with the battery or it could have messed your negative ground up "knocked it loss or something" If you have a volt meter then that would tell you a lot.

[sasi stang]

thanks for all the input....
after checking the cables, and making sure the battery was fully charged, still no change. theres no power to anything (cd player, interior and exterior lights, my alarm and keyless isnt working) theres no chime, nothing. i was thinking maybe the emergency fuel shut off needs to be reset or something to do with the cpu but i really have no idea what it could be! please let me know if you have any idea!

[reivaxtorres]

as stated earlier, did you check the fuses?

[sasi stang]

yeah... none were blown.

[kscoyote]

Might be PATS.

The computer may think the car was stolen and won't allow it to start.

You're probably gonna haveta run it to the dealer. Some locksmiths can fix it . ..

[Neko-]

The emergency shut-off only influences the fuel getting to the engine. The car should still have electrical power even if that thing is active.

As to the PATS... As depicted in this thread there is a solution for PATS that one can try before taking the car to the dealer.

However if the car does absolutely nothing (in the case of the thread mentioned, the 'THEFT' light was blinking) in terms of electrical systems, the first culprit would be the battery and it's connectors.

If those are sound, check the power distribution box / fusebox to make sure no fuses are blown. Take an ohm-meter and test the fuses to make sure. Sometimes it's not all that easy to see.

Looking at the Haynes manual I have there's two different sets (or atleast two chapters) dedicated to the electrical system. One the 'Engine Electrical System' and the other the 'Chassis Electrical System'

There seem to be two fuseboxes, one located under the instrument panel at the left (containing the 'standard' fuses), and one in the engine compartment containing the 'high-current' ones. (they note to disconnect the negative cable on the battery before tampering with the high-current fuses).

There don't seem to be any master-fuses/switches that could cause the issue, so all I can say is try to work back from the battery. If that has power, does the fuse responsible for the internal light (should be in the manual) have power on it's engine side when the doors are open. If it doesn't... where does the power stop?

Possibly the negative wire has been severed for some reason (it is at the front of the car where you said you bumped into something). At this point it's all guess work, and working from the battery up to the individual systems would be your best bet.