I had a friend put an exhaust on the car for me, and now it doesn't start up when I crank the key over.

After I originally got it back from him, I had to jiggle the wires underneath the shift boot arbitrarily, and it would start right up. Now it doesn't start up at all.

The accessories all come on, and when I crank the key over it does the "eh ehehh ehh eh" noise, but never fires over all the way unless I jump it.

Also, my rear taillights stay on permanently if I leave the fuse in.

Here's what I've checked so far:
Battery's been tested at a shop. It's 100% fine.

Tested batt/alternator w multimeter - 12.6 on both w car off, 13.8 on both w car on.

Traced a few wires around the car randomly (doors, center console, under the shift boot, engine bay, rear gate) and electrical taped the ones that I've found to be exposed (I know, fix it right, I'm just trying to isolate the prob)

Cleaned fuse terminals and replaced blown fuses


So what could this be? Any ideas?

 

your friend who replaced this muffler, did he do any welding on the car? did he disconnect the battery first?

 

He did weld. Quite a bit actually... from what I can tell by looking at the exhaust, he just chopped up sections of pipe from scrap metal and welded them all together. It looks terrible, and he had no idea wtf he was doing.

Highly doubt he disconnected the battery first - he's not a real reputable guy.
(Not to mention, he's avoiding me like the plague now)


Car also just died on me while driving yesterday.
Literally just stopped everything in the middle of the road, and I had to coast to the side.
No accessories, no lights, no engine, no nothing. 100% toast.

Can someone please help me or give me some ideas what to look for? Anything I can test easily at home?

I can tow it to a shop, but I don't have thousands of dollars to spend.

 

well, 85 is right in the middle of the 83-87 series of bad wiring juju. 'biodegradable insulation'. it sounds to ME like a series of probably unrelated electrical problems, hard to say where to begin.

 

Would a shorted wire somewhere (or series of them) be enough to completely shut it down like that?

I'm just curious: what would happen to a car if a very amateur welder just clamped away any old place, didn't disconnect the battery, and started welding like crazy?

(not arguing at all, I'm genuinely curious and I really appreciate your help)


I would hate to have a shop "re-wire" it for thousands and then it still doesn't run and we're still shooting in the dark throwing money at parts, ya know?

 

well, the electrical jolt from spark welding can fry electronics. that said, the electronics on an 85 240 are fairly simple and robust, being mostly the ECU (fuel injection controller) and ICU (ignition controller).

and yes, lots of places where a short would cause an immediate stall, for instance, anywhere in the fuel pump wiring, or the hall sensor, or ignition.