Strange electrical problem, need suggestions

Here's what happen's: I start the car and everything works except for the clock, stereo, and climate control. The lights on the climate control all light up when the buttons are pressed, but the fan never turns on. The stereo will eject a disc, but the power button doesn't do anything and the unit won't turn on. This goes on for a period of time, and then all of a sudden it will all kick on and work fine. It doesn't happen every time I drive the car, but often enough to piss me off. It seems to happen more often when it's hot outside, but other than that I see no pattern. The length of time before it starts working can be anywhere from a couple minutes to a couple hours, and once it starts working, it will work until I shut the car off.

I've check fuses, and all are fine. I assume there is a relay somewhere that is not energizing correctly, but I have no idea where it might be.

Any ideas?

sounds like an igniton switch. try messing with the key like moving it up and down and side to side. If stuff starts working while your messing with the key i would say you have a bad contact in you ignition switch. Also check your grounds always a good think to check.

i had a similar probelm once on my st165. it turned out being one of the fuseable links or fuses under the hood nearest the battery.when i would hit a bump the radio and climate control would shut off then come back on and somtimes the car would breifly shut off. i pulled all the fuses under the hood cleaned all the contacts and never had the problem agian.

Good info, thanks guys. I'll definitely be checking fuses and connections, given that the fuse box in the engine was moved to make room for the custom intake.

I'm having a similar problem with just the radio, I'll hit a bump then the radio shuts off, then 1 minute to 15 minutes or another bump and the radio turns back on. Good info. I hope this works for me.

check those fuseable links by the battery. i had the same problem and thats what it was!!

Sounds to me we either have a short or a fuse may be bad. I've had fuses arc back together then burn out again making for very off diagnosis, just check them all and check all the connectors under them.

Let us know!
-Steve

I've had similar problems with my GT and other vehicles. In the case of the GT it was where an add on terminal had been inserted into the fuse block. This expanded the fuse contacts and resulted in poor contact. Hitting a bump or wiggling the fuse would bring the stereo back to life. Ultimately, squeezing the contacts back together slightly solved the problem.