Weird electrical gremlin - 94 E320
 

So my Very Significant Other comes home with a tale of weirdness last Monday, and again this evening.

According to her, she had a no-crank leaving work today, no clicks, no buzz, nothing, and she didn't notice if the warning lights and all worked in the key on position since unfortunately she's one of those that goes directly from off to start(yes I nag her about that).
Previously on Monday evening and again after the brief no-crank, she was driving along and the tach was moving weird, the warning buzzer started going off in a sickly sounding fashion, the seat belt warning overhead was flashing, and the car seemed to be losing power(quite possibly cutting out).
She says she slapped the top of the cluster and it all stopped.

Naturally, I can't get it to act up for love nor money.
I checked all the fuses, wiggled and tapped all the relays, yanked on every
wiring harness that is accessible without taking things apart(engine harness is updated and I repaired the lower harness awhile ago) and nada, sounds just like always.

When I got this car I replaced the OVP or Protection relay with a new one, Kahler I think, I whacked it too and yanked around on it's harness with it running, nada. I don't have a spare relay but I'll try to locate one this weekend and see what that does.

I told her to try moving the shift lever if it does the no-crank again, but other than an ovp relay replacement just because they are troublesome I don't know where to go since I can't get it to act up.

I did pull the cluster and replace the outside temp screen this evening while I was out there.

Any of this sound familiar? Her description of the symptoms, baring in mind she isn't a mechanic, sound almost like the ignition was basically switched off and back on, that would I believe set the warning buzzer and seatbelt light for a short time. I did 20+ key on/off and it's fine, jostled the area and key, nada.

Maybe the ignition switch is acting up?

Sixto
98 E320s sedan and wagon

Possible, I wiggled and jiggled and banged on the knee panel, not a peep.
Not as if that's a conclusive test, but I couldn't get it to fail.

Does she have a gargatuan wad of keys and decorative fobs, flashlights, mace, and a Swiss Army knife on her keychain? I used to carry a 5lb wad of keys on my ring when I worked at the museum and it beat the switch out of my car at the time. Now, I have ONLY my car keys on a separate ring and all my other keys on another. She could have also possibly not returned the key to the run detent after starting, but gone a little past the detent position. When she smacked the dash, it maybe jarred it into the full position.

She did till I met her, now she has a quick disconnect for the car keys to keep from wearing out all my fragile antique lock cylinders. :)

Your Monday symptoms suggest a failing alternator/regulator.

Jim

Yep, both good. She went off to work after a trip out to take kids to school with no issues so far.