Strange Electrical Problem...
 

I just bought an 01 I30. Since I've had it, I've noticed something pretty strange. The dash lights will flicker every once in a while like there's a bad connection or a loose ground.

The other night, I was listening to the radio with the ignition on and the engine off. Everything just shut off all of the sudden. I turned the ignition off and back on but everything was still off, like battery was disconnected. I opened the hood and checked the battery and main fuse with my multimeter. Everything was fine... I tried to turn on the ignition again and everthing powered up. The car has been fine until it did the same thing last night. It's an intermittent problem that has me quite concerned and I dont really know where to begin in diagnosing it. :confused:

The car is bone stock. The previous owner had the electric motor mounts disconnected, the ecu replaced, and the iacv unplugged by the stealership because the ecu was fried by the motor mounts or iacv. I dont think my issue is related but idk.

Have you checked your battery? How new is it? I had a problem where my sunroof wouldn't vent without hammering the button, would open on it's own and not close all the way. 3 days ago my original oem battery finally died. Replaced it with a duralast gold from autozone and surprise...sunroof problems gone. Best of luck to you though.

Yeah the battery is fine, the terminals are tight and clean. Idk what it is.

Check your alternator. Seems like it's starting to have intermittent operation failures.

The ignition switch could be the problem. The power has to go through it to power the radio. In your original post you said the engine was off, so I assume the ignition switch was in the ACC(essory) position. Did you try turning the ignition switch to the ON position? Has this happened when the engine was running?

I thought about the ignition switch being the culprit but it's pretty hard to diagnose when it's intermittent. Iirc, the ignition switch was in the ON position both times it occured. It hasn't happened while the car was running/driving. Knock on wood... ;)

what about the lights flickering, what can that be?