What will be a good way to find out if and where my battery cables are going bad. I believe the cables are giving my starter a hard time so that makes the car not want to start most of the time. I dont want to spend lots of money on new cables and **** so im asking for some advice on how to repair them. Any suggestions guys? I want to work on it tomorrow. Thanks

manny

 

This question of yours can be answered but to be helpful it would be better to know just what happens when you try to start your car. Meaning, when you turn the key to "crank" do you here the starter working? or does nothing happen? Does the starter just crank and crank and the engine does not fire off? Does it help if you charge the battery or get a jump from a friend??? The answer to some of these questions can help me understand whats going on. John St John

 

The corosion eats it's way down the cable like the blob. If you've had it at the terminals and not cleaned them, then most likely it has spread. You can get the premade one for the ground if you're no good at crimping, soldering or screw on terminals. Just cut off the ground cable just before it clamps to the body and then screw down the new one. Most likley it's your battery. Check how many volts it has when cold. If the voltage drops to about 10v right after just one crank then you prolly have a bad cell.

http://static.summitracing.com/globa.../tay-20012.jpg

 

Battery cables are relatively cheap, I'd replace them if you have doubts. It definitely won't hurt anything.

A way to measure the difference is to check the voltage between the negative battery terminal (-) and the chassis ground point where the negative wire connects to the car (measure the two sides of the same wire). Ideally this voltage should be near zero.

-s-

 

Soemtimes the engine just turns and turns but it dosent start, other times it just dosent do nothing except for a "click" sound.

 

The turning and turning is likely not a battery or cable problem. It is the general tune of the engine and the fact its a FD and is prone to flood at times. When my engine doesn't fire off in the first second or so I consider it flooded and depress the gas petal to the floor and crank the engine to clear the flood and normally it starts up fine.
The "click" sound normally means the starter or its solenoid is failing. Most replace the starter as a complete unit. Your symptoms can be caused by a string of things a mile long, so the best thing to do is get it looked at. If you have access to a volt meter you can get some answers using that. The battery should have around 12.6 volts at rest. If it reads lower than 10.5 it has a bad cell and is junk. You have 6 cells, each inputs 2.1 volts. Normally as I said the clicking is a skewed starter. What happens is the solenoid is a big relay and it's contacts get damaged and fail to deliver the voltage to the starter. Thus the click alone. If you are lucky it may make better contact after a few tries. Soon it will fail altogether on you. The crank and crank and no fire is another story.

 

Manny, have you replaced your battery yet? I know you've been saying you needed one badly! It once caused your car to flood. You may have a weak battery, not a battery cable problem. Take some pics of the cables and post them, I wanna take a look.

 

On the right track assuming you're actually trying to measure the voltage drop and not the cable resistance but here's a better way:

Check the battery voltage with a meter directly across the battery terminals themselves and then have someone start the car. Note the voltage drop while the starter is engaged. Now check the battery voltage from the positive terminal on the battery to the chassis ground point of the negative battery cable and note the voltage drop while someone starts the car. If the difference between the two is much at all you either have A) a bad postive or negative battery cable or B) a bad ground connection at the chassis.

If the battery voltage sags badly no matter what you have a weak battery. Have it checked for free somewhere as that's easy to rule out.

 

If the engine is turning over fine at normal speed and not starting you have no problems with the battery or starter.

If you hear a click from the starter but it doesn't actually turn over you have a bad starter solenoid as JSJ explained.

 

DamonB, I have both of those problems. Its random. I cant have the radio on or it will just make the click sound. i also cant have any light on or it will also jsut make the click sound. of my lights are off along with my radio it starts most of the time or it just turns over and over and over.

 

A weak battery may turn the engine over yet still not have enough voltage to fire the ignition - when my battery was bad the car would crank but the voltage would drop to around 8 volts, which is not enough to run the ignition (iirc the ignitors need around 9-10 volts min to fire the coils)

 

This sounds like a weak battery to me - also the Positive terminal is where the most corrosion occurs. Make sure both terminals and posts are clean & corrosion free, the mating surfaces should be brite shiny metal. also check the connection of the main fuse box mounted on the positive terminal to make sure it is clean and tight.
For the ground cable, peel the insulation back a couple inches and check for corroded/or broken wires - if the wire is bad replace it otherwise just replace the insulation & wrap it w/ some high quality elect. tape (3M is a good brand) or seal it w some of that "DipIt" liquid plastic stuff.