notrotarypwrd

I've done alot of searching and i think its one of these two that have gone bad.
here's the story:
First of all, car has new battery and alternator since Dec. Alternator charges at about 13.5v.

Car starts and runs fine on saturday, cd player skips alot(intermittent power or a cd player gone bad???)

Sunday: car starts and runs fine, cd player skips to the point where music is intolerable.

Monday: Barely starts in the morning, cranks for 4-5 seconds and starts right before battery gives up, does this about 4 times throughout the day, each time cutting it closer, thinking i'm going to be left stranded I go home and switch cars.

Wednesday: Tried to start, to no surprise, it doesn't, barely cranks over.

Today: I do a quick check all battery wires appear fine, meant to check starter wires, but ran outta time. Checked fusible links for continuity, had continuity through all three, but not sure how conductive they actually were, i can't find my good fluke multimeter. Radio, headlights, fuel pump, power windows, etc work fine when ignition is on. I try to start the car and the starter barely cranks, and dash warning lights dim to where they almost turn off. I jump the car off and its starts up like normal, something is draining the battery. Once the car is on, its charging, all is fine, except for the cd player.
I decided to go along with the cd player thing, its definitely skipping because of intermittent power. With the key on, in low volume, it works fine, high volume: skips horribly. Low volume + lights or wipers or windows in operation: skipping. I disconnected the radio, took out the fuses for everything and ran the car for like 10-15 minutes, thinking this would at least give it enough charge to crank since the power robbing source might have been eliminated: nope, won't start under its own power.
I searched about fuseable links and read that they affect radio opeation and cause other electrical glitches when they are going out but not fully blown, don't know about the causing the car not to start.
Could be the starter? and the radio thing be another issue. Starter works perfectly fine when proper power is applied.
I'm gonna go check the car out again after work tomorrow, what should i check next????
I'm kinda hesitant to hardwire where the main fuseable link is to test it because if there is something else wrong i don't wanna fry my harness.

BTW, when this saga with the cd player thing started, it was a rainy night, so it was the first time i used my headlights, wipers, radio, and ac all at once, could this have overloaded the link or something else and caused these problems??

Sorry for the very long post, but i figured i'd be as detailed as possible to get the most educated answers as possible.
Thanks in advance for any help

notrotarypwrd

another small detail: Tach jumps up to about 3k rpm while tring to crank, even though the engine is barely even turning over. Never did this before during normal starting.

bliffle

Continuity test with an ohmmeter proves very little in high-current car wiring, even with a Fluke. You need to check voltage drops under load, and a D'arsonval voltmeter is best: I actually use a WW2 "Phaostron" 20 v. meter I picked up in a surplus store in 1956 - been finding excessively high voltdrops in cars ever since with that babe. Usually it's about a 1.5 v. drop in the ground lead from the battery - under starting load.

B

Siraniko

iTrader: (13)

clean or replace the battery cable/end terminals and be sure to have a good ground. thats where I would start.

notrotarypwrd

...replaced the main fusible link with a generic one from the parts store, still the same symptoms.

gsl-se addict

iTrader: (3)

I agree with wackey, check out the battery cables, grounds, terminals. The fusible links won't have anything to do with the starting issue. For starting it is battery, battery cables, and starter/solenoid are the only thing in the picture. The battery may not be holding a charge or the cables are probably bad. I would suspect the cables myself, especially the connection at the battery end. You might as well have your battery checked while you are at the autoparts store. Testing is usually free (maybe you got a defective battery).

notrotarypwrd

thanks for the info, I'll be checking all wires carefully tomorrow morning and taking the battery in to get it checked out since i gotta go to the parts store anyway. I'll probably install a spare cd player i have somewhere to see if it was all just a coincidence.

bliffle

Use one of those cheap battery post and terminal cleaners with wire brushes.

B

notrotarypwrd

ahhh, turns out it was the battery, one of the last things i thought of because it was only like 6 months old and i had never let it get drained.
I took it to o'reilleys, where i bought it, they tried charging it, it was dead. They check some sticker that tells when the batteries are suppossed to be rotated out of the shelf, and it was suppossed to be taken off the shelf in mid 04, yet they sold it to me in dec. 04. It was replaced, so my car once again starts right up, time for a drive

Thanks for everybody's help and advise