tell me what you think..

When I go to start the car, I have no power, the car doesn't even try to turn over, like the starter is bad, or there is a short or something. Turning the Key to accessory I don't even have enough power to see voltage

If I use Jumpers, Turn key to accessory and I see 12V and It turns over just fine (Starter was recently rebuilt)
Battery was just tested as good today, so thats not it.
Terminals look clean

Possible bad battery wires?

This is my daily driver, so If I can't get it sorted out, Its going to get stored away for a while and drive parents old car around for the rest of winter. Up here at College its too cold to really work on the car outside.

It sucks not having a car.

 

I'd say check the connection between the battery terminals and battery cables. Make sure there is no corrosion in there is good solid contact. If they're any kind of rust or corrosion, remove it (with a wire brush, steel wool, sandpaper, whatever) then apply battery terminal grease and reconnect. If that doesn't work, borrow a battery out of someone elses car and try to crank it with that and see what happens.

 

Well the starter and the battery are the first places I would look, next would be the alternator (just to be sure that you are getting a charge) and then replace the battery cables. Thats what I would do.

Have you considered the possibility that the starter was re-built incorrectly? Everytime I've had a starter problem in the past, it has been a bad starter, once it was my alternator not producing a charge.

Ryan

 

If it was the starter, it would never start with jumper cables. An alternator problem would make sense (starts jumped, doesn't start of battery because the battery never charges)

 

have you checked the output voltage when the car is started, should be like 13.25 volts from altenator

 

You'll need a voltmeter. Jump the car and remove the cables. Let it idle for a few minutes then measure the battery voltage: if it is not ~13.6v and remains at 12v or less, change the alternator. (Measure with the meter leads on the terminals, not the battery posts, in case there is a bad connection.) If it is about 13.6 and the battery is good, clean the battery terminals and the two grounds on the negative cable with sandpaper. (You should clean the terminals and grounds anyway.)

-John.

 

The alarm on my car was doing that,... disconnected it and fixed the prob right up!

 

Well, yesterday I took the battery to a parts store and had it tested there. When they hooked it up he said that he had good power to start with ( I was thinking perhaps the Alt also) and that it was passing all of the tests that the machine does.

I need to go out and buy some stuff to clean my terminals, but thats the next step.

 

Also make sure the fusible links are in good shape. The little 3 fuses by the battery on the strut tower... 1 of them is labeled Main, its noticable by being the thicker of the 3... Make sure its good.

 

For the sake of discussion:

That is reasonable, and the fusible connections should be cleaned as standard maintenance. But it is not likely his problem as the jumped battery passes through the same link and starts the car. If the solenoid didn't react or only clicked with a new or jumped battery, that would be the first place to look.

-John.

 

WOW... are there normally this many battery problems during this time of year?
I've seen... lots of posts about batteries now

 

Yep, to be expected: temps fall, batteries are weaker when cold,...

-John.

 

Where are you grounding the jumper cables on your car? To the battery, or to the body somewhere? It sounds like you may possibly need a new engine ground. You can check by using one side of the jumper cables to run from the negative side of the battery to the engine lift bracket.

 

All excellent suggestions, make sure you check them all. First place I would look would be the terminals, take them off and clean the **** out of them, both the termnal and connectors, use Coke if necesary. My car did the exact same thing, and all it was was a loose terminal connection.

have fun

 

Thanks for all of the good suggestions. Its a great day out today so I am going to go out and try everything that you guys said.

Here's hoping that its just bad connections.

 

If the battery is fully charged at time of tring to start and it starts with jumpers only. the first thing is.. where are you hooking up the jumpers? at the batt. or conecting to the ground.? the batt. wires molded or bolted to the terminals that are at the batt. end ? if molded the jumpers may be making better connection with the squize from the jumpers.
I would use the jumpers to check groung straps from batt. to frame of car and to engine by jumping black jumper wire from batt. to enging. with same batt. not starting car. not using red wire at all.
you can also test starter on car with ''bad batt'' by using jumper cable straight to starter from batt. by pass all starting circuits. tap red jumper from pos. batt. term. to starter . you might also have a bad hot start rely but the '' bench test'' of starter will help pin point your prob.

 

Well, I got her up and running. I took a wire brush to the terminals, and all of the connections. I also got something that cleans any corrosion and is supposed to protect the connections from future problems. Basically went through and checked every one of the connections under the hood that had power going through it. Now it has good power starting up in the coldest weather.

Thanks for all of the ideas.