I went out this morning to work.....car started up fine at my house....drove to work (not to actually work, just had to talk to my boss) and I was in there for about 10 minutes....came out and tried to start up, but it did absolutely nothing.

No ticking, engine wasn't turning over....absolute silence. I had no electricity (no door locks, no windows, no horn, no radio, nothing like that) BUT, I did have headlights. I popped the hood and checked the connections to the battery and everything seemed fine.....seriously, it was just like someone stole the battery right out of my car.

So I call my dad and he gets there, shakes the battery around a bit, and tries to start it.....starts right up with no problems. What could this be? I'm getting an AC-Delco battery to put in there, right now it's a cheap Wal-Mart brand battery that was in there when I bought the car. It's a fairly new battery, but maybe something's wrong with a cell or something? It's not any connections or wires; everything looked kosher under the hood. I'm pretty stumped; the car started fine the rest of the day. I took it to dinner tonight and it was perfect. Before today, I'd never had any starting problems. Thoughts?

 

Did your fuel pump prime? If it didn't then it was definitely the battery or some connection was loose and it just got reconnected when your dad shook it.

 

if it persists after battery swap, it will probably be ignition related. IE: switch, lock & tumbler, vats resistor. I would probably disregard the vats, as it wouldnt cause it to act as if no battery was in place.

Billy D.

 

When I turned the key forward, I didn't hear anything, but yet I put the headlights on, and they came on like normal, then I tried to start it again and I heard what seemed to be the fuel pump priming, and the dash lights flickered. But it still didn't start.

I could only get it to do that after the headlights were on, otherwise I'd get the same silence result.

 

So is it entirely possible that it's a defective battery? I just wanna know if there's a good chance of that.

 

Not likely unless you mistakenly thought they cables were tight when they were not. Sounds like a possible ignition switch problem to me but I can say for sure since Ive never experienced a failing ignition switch.

 

Well, it's just funny cuz my dad wiggled the battery around in its place a bit and then the car started. We never messed with anything else.

 

sounds like a bad connection. The only way to really verify is with a meter . You can visiually look but thats not good enough. I had a car once that I swapped battery cables on and thought being new they were perfect. Went to kfc and the car died right in the drive up window. Towed it home and messed with it for a few days till I tried cleaning the new cables. They had a light film/coating on the battery post connections and once cleaned ,never had a problem again even though I could see the cables were hooked up and tight. With things being super cramped and tight under the hood anyhow, it is real easy to break other stuff or pulloff wires while under the hood doing other things.try cleaning the cables and inspect the grounds....

 

do you have an alaram on ur car? mind did the same thing my alarm wouldnt come off like its was beepin or maken noise..engine didnt turn over or anything..so i took the neg. side of the bttery off n it started up fine..sumtimes it does that..

 

my car was strange like that when my battery was reaaaal dead.somedays it would totally fire, but especially when it was hot and especailly in the middle of the day i couldn't pay that thing to start.

 

Nah, no alarm on my car. When I get the new battery tomorrow I'll inspect the connections and all that crap. My dad is pretty knowledgeable car-wise, so he won't skip over anything. We'll go over it with a fine-toothed comb.

Car was fine again today, no problems.

 

It's your battery or your cables. Oftimes, the cables, as one guy put it, get corroded and you can't tell unless you pull the cable from the terminals and check the inside of the clamps as well as the terminals themselves. The symptom of this is usually intermittant starts, lights come on, but not enough power to the stater, etc.

If the battery is no good, DO NOT skimp on getting a new battery, get the best one (it's the heart of your starting system). JMHO

 

Oh yeah, I got the battery part covered. I just can't believe the guy that previously owned the car put a Wal-Mart battery in it. No respect to the car at all.

We'll check all that crap tomorrow when we make the battery swap. I'm actually hoping for a terminal corrosion. Then I know it's that and nothing else.

 

Almost sounds liek a fusible link may be loose? When one of my cars died outta no where i had no power to anything but headlights, turned out to be a fusible link. Could be loose corroded or something like that. I beleive theres a big bundle of em just in back of the battery if i remember correctly.

You said your headlights worked, what about the dome light radio etc?

 

yeah, don't use the type of combs those guys in Spaceballs The Movie were using when Lord Helmut said to "comb the desert"