So my car has been turning over increasingly slow the past few days. It got a little bit better yesterday. I had to go to Athens today and it started up twice just fine... Then when I was leaving the lawyer's office, I went to turn the key and NOTHING. The volt gauge drops as if it's starting, but it's not turning over. It doesn't even give a hint of turning over, the volts just drop when I turn the key over to start.

Thankfully my dear old grandmother was with me, so I pushed the car to a run and she pop started it. Loads of smoke poured out for a few seconds, then it was smoke free. I thought maybe it was a bunch of carbon. I've been driving the car SOOOOO carefully to save gas these past few tanks, with only a redline or so here and there. But ****... **** **** ****...

I really had to go somewhere important tomorrow. I can roll start it as I'm on a really big hill right now, but I won't be able to start it again like that where I'm going.

Is it my starter? Solenoid? (Not sure where this is...?) What?


EDIT: It was originally suspected to be my battery...

 

well i just replaced my battery and that fixed mine but i didnt have any smoke come out when i started it.......check you trailing and leading coils...go to ebay and buy the ecu code checker i just bought one and it might help you figure it out

 

Pull the starter and hook it up directly to the battery to test it. If it works, then you probably have a ground problem. I'd also check and make sure your battery terminals are clean.

 

It actually turned out to be a weird battery problem. I found my dad's 'too expensive for you to be using' battery charger and hooked it up. The battery was holding a full charge...so I still let it charge up for about an hour and then tried cranking it. Well, it started to crank then just kind of died off into nothing. I checked the battery readout again and it was completely drained. So basically the battery was just ******* fuckidy **** fucked. Would hold a charge until you put to heavy a load on it, then it'd just drain. The sticker on the side said '01...so I'm assuming that's when the battery was made. It was just old...

I went to wal mart and got one with a good deal more cold cranking amps. $55 down the tube...but hey, it cranks up like a dream.

I'm really pissed though, cuz I'm going to see someone important tomorrow and I'm basically out of money now.

 

Welcome to owning a 20 year old car. Unexpected shiz happens.

 

Cheaper than a new (or reman) starter!

 

FIXED

 

Puh-lease, 20 years old and my car certainly doesn't show it. Other than an oil leak from the oil pan gasket, a power steering hose and the variable speed relay on my blower motor...my car is in great condition. It's a well built car, in my personal opinion.

 

Age doesn't matter with battery. Unless of course, it's a 20 year old battery, too, which would be just nuts.

I had to do my starter last year, deader than a doornail, not even hammering on it did anyhing. $65 later, it works like new.

 

Age matters with battery, are you joking?

 

Meet the starter starter:

 

I've seen one year old batteries die, and 8 year old batteries still going strong.

Depends a lot on the manufacturer and the temperatures the car sees.

 

Consider yourself lucky if that's all that is wrong with your car. I have had(and still have) way more issues than that...and I thought my car was really good because it hasn't blown up yet. 157,500+ original miles and still going.

 

And the load put on the battery.

 

182,000 miles

PWNED!