:smack: Damn, I was going to go with Casey on this one…Somebody stole your windshield.
Is there a lemon law in TN? If the guy knowingly hid the fact that the head gasket was bad, and only did a half-assed cover up, he should be responsible for it’s repair, right? Unless he sold it for cheap…
Was he a dealer or was it a private sale?
Well now…
Amazingly, someone just happened to show up that had jumper cables. It boosted off beautifully right away and I left it running a while, then recranked it without a hitch. The guy is coming back in a few hours to see if it starts again. I didn’t leave anything on that I noticed, but I could have turned something off earlier when I was checking around.
:keeping fingers crossed:
Casey, it was a private sale, and the guy disappeared from our complex the day I bought the Corsica. I guess at the time he was planning on taking off, and that extra seven hundred bucks did the trick.
Oh, I forgot to mention the funniest part. We used the Corsica to boost off the Maxima! Even though it’s been sitting there since last November without being cranked, it started up and didn’t smoke. I’m sure it was just a fluke…surely! I tried using some of that liquid gasket stuff back then, so maybe it temporarily sealed something after it cooled off good? Hell if I know! I’m a bit ashamed I actually thought HEYYY NOW I CAN SELL IT!
But really, I wouldn’t do anything like that to anyone. Besides, I’ve got nowhere to run off to. 
You will still want to take it up to Autozone to check your electronics out. Even if it does fire up in a few hours. They will do it for free, with the hope that if it is a crapped out alternator or battery that they get to sell you one.
Yeah, I think you still need to get it checked out. You described it as being pretty corroded, which means it’s likely 4 or 5 years old already. Like I said before
It started working again for a while, but the battery was toast. Not necessarily drained, that’s why it would work for a while, but the wires inside were too corroded to be reliable.
spend $1.00 and buy those little felt battery post thingies… its worth it.
For how old the battery is:
"The code is a string of letters numbers, but all the real information you need is in the first two characters. Usually, the code starts with a letter that corresponds with the month–‘A’ for January through ‘L’ for December (some manufacturer’s codes omit ‘I’; for them, ‘M’ indicates December). The second character of the code is a numeral that stands for the year. Thus, a code starting ‘A2’ indicates that the battery was shipped in January 1992; ‘B2’ indicates February 1992, and so on. (Delco reverses the letter and the number; a Delco code starting with ‘2C’ indicates the battery was shipped in March 1992.) "
http://www.allpar.com/fix/batteries.html
I always get a new battery when I buy a used car if it looks old.
Handy that is very useful information! Thank you!
It started up a few minutes ago, but I’m toting it to Autozone tomorrow morning. I can’t afford to fix anything, but I guess it’s good to know what the problem might be.
I do nearly all of my own mechanic work and have a friend who was an automotive electrical expert. He told me “Most all battery related problems are due to dirty or corroded connections at the battery terminals” Walk to the store, buy a terminal cleaning tool.
Disconnect the NEGATIVE terminal 1st then the positive. Clean the posts and the wire ends with the wire brush. Re-assemble POSITIVE first. If the wire itself shows signs of corrosion, purchase new (temporary) connectors, cut and strip the wires back, use a 7/16" wrench to install them. ALWAYS disconnect the negative 1st and re-connect it last. This is to prevent accidents if your wrench should happen to touch the car body while also touching the battery. Afterwards, a jump start may be needed just to get the car going to automatically re-charge the battery while driving.
Be sure to wash up after handling these corroded parts.
I had wondered what had become of the Corsica from an earlier thread. You gotta keep us posted, Rush!
its never a good idea to try to recharge your battery with the alternator… its not designed to recharge a dead battery. see if you can borrow a battery charger… it could save you some grief in the long run.