Hey guys, long time no see? I got a 1994 camaro with some problems which hopefully you guys can help me out fixing. Let me try to explain it all.

I've had the car for 3 years. I've gone through 2 altenators and 2 batteries. I have a gaint stereo in which it pulls alot of current from both and they fry. The starter I am assuming was the original.

Car would always start hard after driving, since day one. If it was cold it would start every time, but once it got warm or hot outside it would mess up and crank very hard over. Sometimes it would start, othertimes I had to sit and wait for it to cool off. I knew the starter needed to be replaced but was a pain in the *** to replace.

So about a week ago, I drove the car around Thursday I think it was, went to las vegas friday, saturday, sunday with some buddies (not in the camaro), came back, tried that monday to start it to go to work and nothing. Dimm lights and the car would not crank over. I can hear all the clickings under the car as well as in the dash. Voltage reads 11.8 volts I think it was. I came out that monday night to jump start it and let me tell you it was so hard to jump start it was weird. fMy girlfriends 4-runner rev'ed up would not start it. I tried my truck and after fighting with it for 10 minutes or so it started. Turned it off/on a few times. All seemed to work ok. Drove it into the parking lot and shut it off. Came back out the next day and the battery said 10.5 volts. I was like "wtf" I decided at that point to get new starter, alt, and get the battery checked out.

So I got a new starter, alt replaced under lifetime warrenty even though it tested out ok, and the battery took back to sears and had them charge it. They said nothing was wrong with it besides it had 0 cold cranking amps and 0 volts. When I pulled the battery out of the car it was dead as a door ****. No lights, no nothing.

SO....last night (1 week later) I tried to replace everything. Replaced it all and went to start the car. Turn the key and it says on my digital voltage guage 12.4. Car starts......dies quickly (i think just from sitting) and then would not re-crank over. Everything clicks just as before. Now battery says 11.8 volts and wont go. I am going to re-check this today after work and see what it says. If it is lower than 11.8 volts I am going to guess the battery is bad. Stereo is disconnected from battery.

Any ideas on what could be wrong? Battery is 2 years old, but has been drained once, and been jumped a couple of times. Alt and starter are brand new. I've never had any kind of problem before like this. Any help would be great!

Thanks,
Chris

 

Looks like the battery may be your culprit, could be a dead cell. Changing the battery would be the logical place to start no, considering you have changed everything else.

 

I agree. I don't want to have to buy a new battery even though it is warrentied from sears. I have a yellow top optima in my truck but I don't want to kill the battery in that and then not be able to drive my truck. I am definately going to check everything today after work, and if that battery has like 11 volts or less I am going to take it to sears and throw a fit and get a new one. I am going to first try to jump start it and see if it turns right over or if it chugs along. If it chugs I'll stop with it and go get another battery.

Thanks for the replie, it does sound like a bad battery to me.

Chris

 

Hey guys I am still having troubles. car starts sometimes, sometimes doesn't start. I can hear clicking in the dash (sometimes a yeeeeeeeeeeeeee) like a switch is trying to turn over. Battery shows good volts, starter does start the car, just randomly. Any ideas on anything to try?

The sound comes from the passenger side glovebox area. My security light stays on but I have been able to start the car for the last 3 years. It stays on all the time. The key is a Non-gm chipped key. Just some blank that looks like it was cut. I do not think this is my problem but I don't want to rule it out either.

Any help would be great. It is just starting to get very annoying not having a reliable car.

Chris

 

Does it got click click click? or jsut one click, when you turn the key.

if jsut one click I wouls say its VATS related.

another thing to look at is check out your alternator wire and battery connections, I had similar problems my battery woudl nto charge but all good, ruend out I had sever corrsion on the inside of the wire, I woudl cut it shorter and clean it up and be fine for a month or so then same problem, I jsut bought a $1.99 battery cable and popped it in place and spliced it in with the battery cable.


As for the jump start... have you used the cables before and they worked fine(chepa cables take forever to jump a car)

BUt even with a jump this kinda concurs with my bad wire or VATS problem.

 

Well.........before i got a new battery, starter, and altenator the car was extermly hard to jump start. So hard it made me think something else was wrong. Once I changed all the parts the car just sometimes goes click. I'll try to explain.

I noticed the wire on my negitive battery terminal different than my positive. Like it has been replaced before. I am just wondering where does the negitive battery cable go? Battery to engine or Battery to frame?

Say I jump in, place the key in, and turn it. The dash lights do nothing, headlights never would dim that I can remember, it just goes click. Sometimes I'd get no click and turning it 3-4-6 times it would start. I'd just have to keep trying. The odd thing is I don't have a key with a chip. I have the security light on all the time but no chip in the key and the car has started like this for a while. I can usually hear a clicking behind the glove box when I hear the starter click as well. I thought about having a key made to my VIN with the correct pellet in the key to try it but a $30 key is a pain in the *** if it doesn't fix my problem.

The car still starts hard when it is hot. I thought about getting some of that starter rap from Summit racing when I order some more. The stock starter that was on it had some heat sheild on it but it has always been hard to start when it is hot. I dunno who decided to put starters there. I know all cars are the same but all the chevy's I've had do this. It is just annoying.

Let me know what you think. I need to start driving it again or start riding my bike and sell the thing. It is just starting to get annoying to the point of where I dunno what I am doing with it. It has been more maintence then I expected. I am just getting tired of it. Please help out guys with some ideas.

Thanks,
Chris

 

I woudl consider getting hte key...

Jsut my experience see if it helps you...


When I have alt/bat/cahrging problems, my car woudl have power.

I woudl turn the key it owuld go click, pause click click click, lights start to dim and everything, then eventually run out of power.

Whnen I had a battery cable problem everytime it rained, my car woudl be dead, no power, I woudl pop the hood and loosen and tighten the cables and the car woudl work fine.



Alright now when my igniton lock cylinder went bad, my car woudl start sometimes jsut fine, then sometimes not start, have full power, I woudl turn the key but nothing would happen was a pain in my ***. It got so bad sometimes I would jsut leave the car running and lock the doors, if I was jsut running to the store for a few mintues.

I reccomend clenaing your battery ternminals, maybe traicng where the black wire grounds to and clean up that. Also is the possibly replaced black wire look alot smaller then you think it should? It might not be groudning enough voltage. Also check out he wire to the alternator is working fine.

Also if your car won't start, if you wait 30 mintues then try it does it start? I think thats is the wait period when you trick the VATS and it goes off, not letting the car start no matter what for 30 mintues.

I would get the key with the chip, who cares if its $27 it will probably stop the security light form going off(easier to sell the car in the future with it off) and might solve your problem.

 

sounds exactly like a prob i just fixed on a buddys olds

it took forever to find but i just went threw the battery cable connections and power distribution ones and all took them off and cleaned em then put them back that is what it was and can almost garuntee that is your prob

 

I had a car that was hard to start or somtimes would not start when it was up to running temp and it was the distributor cap, rotor button and sometype of borad in the distrbutor that was causing it. After i replaced all of that i never had a problem with it starting again. My 2 cents.

-William

 

Won't work on 3.4L v6s, they were all distribitorless systems they had 3 ignition coils with 2 fireing points per each one.

 

Sounds a WHOLE lot like either bad jumper cables???

Or bad battery cables in the car....

Or maybe even the new starter may be bad.

 

Today/tonight is the night i start taking a look at the whole shabang.

My dad thought about having me re-ground and check all the wires. I am first going to run my tests on the load when trying to start the car, hopefully it will not just start and I can get it to see if it pulls a load or not to start. I can then go from there.

I am going to pull my bottom pannel off and check cables etc to make sure the VATS stuff is all working right, because my security light has always stayed on and never has gone off for 3 years now. Want to check that out.

Thanks for all the help guys, I'll keep you posted on what happens.

Chris