I was driving today and the car starts/drives fine. I get to a stop light, its about to turn green so I shift into first and before I can do anything the car just completly dies. Luckily I can move it off to the side of the road.

Some history.

New battery last year
Stock alternator.
New starter.

1. I checked the battery volts and it was at 12v parked.
When i crank it over it goes right down to 0, so it needs a recharge.

2. I tried getting my brother to tow me and popping the clutch. Nothing, the tires chirp and no starting action.

3. I had the battery tested and it tested good, just needs charging.

I am assuming my alternator took a crap. It has been making a super charger noise for about 3 months. I assume the ball bearings were about wore out.

4. I will be taking the alternator off the car tonight and testing it to make sure. Last year I had it tested with it in the car and it tested out fine, thats why I didn't replace it already.

Any ideas welcome.

 

try to jump start it, if it does not start then it is def not anything to do with the battery system

do you hear the fuel pump turn on when you flip the key on

 

I tried jump starting it. No go.

I can defiantly hear the fuel pump.

The battery doesnt have enough power to crank more than once without it dying.

Even if jump starting it from another car doesnt mean it would stay started if the alternator is bad. Right? I though the alternator charged the battery, but you need enough CCA in order to turn over the engine.

 

Ok, I had the battery tested and the alternator.

Both passed with flying colors.

The battery was a little low on the charge, but the tech said it should turn the engine over just fine.

I have the screw in type positive and negative battery terminals. I went ahead and purchased the adapters to convert it to a terminal battery style. The battery is defiantly putting out some voltage now. I installed new terminals on the battery itself along with new connectors on the positive and negative wires that connect to the terminals.

When I crank the car it cranks once, like the battery isn't pushing enough juice and then it sounds like a thud, like it cant crank over the engine, almost like the engine is siezed. It is a new motor, all forged internals, tight piston ring clearance, so its tough to start normally. The battery is 525 CCA rated.

Any ideas? I am at a serious loss. It was running fine prior. No SES codes or anything. It just died for no reason.

I checked all plug wires too (New NGK wires). They are clear from the headers and no burn marks. I made sure in routing them properly this time around.

New

 

That is odd.

I have to wonder about you only being able to crank it once then the battery dies. Can you swap it out with another one just to absolutely make sure it's okay?

If the batt is truly fine, then you must have some type of high current condition or short that is just sucking the life out of the battery. If that's the case, it may explain why the car just died without warning.

 

It's been driving fine for the past 3 months is why its even weirder. It's not that it dies, its more of the fact that it doesnt have enough umph to turn the engine over. It's like it turns the engine over a half cycle, then i need to try and press the key towards the crank again and it does the same thing. It wont completely turn the engine over in one whole revolution.

What are the stock battery CCA specs?

 

Unfortunantly, I dont have 2 people so I cant test to see if I actually have spark at the plugs or the coil wire. However, I am going to go down to the garage and see if I can turn the motor over by hand with a ratchet to make sure its not a spun bearing or something of the like causing the motor to sieze.

 

Holy SH**. Either I am very weak, or that sucker has some really insane compression. I can only turn over the engine about as much as the start does. After I take a break and try again it turns it over a little more.

However, the crank pulley bolt that goes into the actual crank snout that holds the pulley on was loose to begin with. I had to crank the S H I T out of it before it was tight enough where I could try and rotate the pulley counter clockwise in order to try and manually turn it over. Perhaps it wasn't tightened enough for it to turn it over properly to begin with?

 

Ok, so when I turn the key to the start position, it tries to turn the engine over but the battery immediatly goes down to 0 on my battery gauge. It's like something is pulling a HUGE draw when I go to turn it over. Possible bad starter pulling too big of a draw?

I dont have any aftermarket speakers etc.

*EDIT*

I just pulled my wifes known working battery out of her 2002 explorer with 625 cranking amps. Same symptoms. When I try and crank the meter on the gauge goes down to 0 and it wont start. So I have ruled out battery, alternator, plug wires, possible seisure of the motor.

Checked Alternator wire to the positive terminal, good.
Checked positive from starter to positive terminal, good.
Checked ground from block to negative terminal, good.
Checked ground from engine bay to negative terminal, good.
All accessories work just fine. Radio plays, electric waterpump spins, checked fuel and its there.

 

Ok, I took my starter off and tried bench testing it myself...

Hooked the positive to the terminal in the below picture called 12v from battery.

Then hooked the negative to the purple wire from theft deturant.

I then took a piece of wire and jumpered between the two and nothing happened. I got a small spark but no action on the starter. Nothing turned, no sound. So I am thinking possible bad starter. I am going to take it to a real shop tomorrow to test it for a final answer, but maybe I found my culprit.

 

Ok, last one for the night and then I am going to bed.

I had the wires hooked up wrong to bench test it.

You need to take the negative side of the battery and ground it to the frame.

Then take the positive to the big lead, or 12v from battery, then take a jumper wire from the 12v big lead to the small purple wire. This allows you to see if the starter is working properly.

After hooking it up properly it seemed to turn the starter over just fine.

I will take it to a pro for verification but I am pretty sure now that I am in a bad spot... More than likely a siezed motor somehow since I have tested everything else and it seems to work just fine.

 

first you should have hooked the negative to the starter case

and i would do a voltage drop test across the starter positive cable

 

Ok, I had a reputable shop test the starter and they said it was fine as well... I am at a serious loss.

Any ideas on what would cause the starter to partially turn over the motor, but not all the way? The battery goes from 12v - 0v almost immediatly with a known working battery that tested good on another car and on a bench tester.

I am thinking I might have to tear apart the engine.... dropped a valve or something? I was at 60psi oil pressure right before she died...

Only other time I have seen the battery drop so suddenly was when I had a bad ground.

 

i have one idea, maybe you should

and if that does not work then try to push the car and pop start it, if that does not work then you know it has nothing to do with the starting or charging system eh

 

Already tried pop starting it... No luck. Why would I need to test for a load drop across the starter if the starter was already tested? They do a load test on the bench tester.