I’m trying to revive Beauty . I got in her the other day, and she just wouldn’t start. The relay didn’t even click when I turned the key - no lights on the radio, no dashboard lights, nothing.
So I brought my girlfriend’s car over and got out the jumper cables. I used the technique that you’re technically not supposed to do - I hooked up the cables, started her car, let it run for awhile. I turned on the ignition, and the voltmeter on the dashboard showed some juice and the dashboard lit up, so I tried to start it (with my girlfriend’s car still running). She said she saw some sparks next to the battery (where I clamped the negative ground jumper cable), I heard the starter go over once, and then everything died. I left everything hooked up for awhile, but nothing would light up again, so I gave up.
Today I took the battery into an auto supply store. He stuck a digital battery tester on it, and it didn’t even have enough juice to light up any of the LED’s :eek: So, I traded in my peice of lead for a new battery with actual juice.
So I see two posibilities here:
The battery was just ready to die. Trying to jump it raised it out of it’s slump, but the attempted start just killed it dead. When I put the new battery in, the car should start right up and I can worry about the back tire that’s slowly loosing air.
There is a short in my electrical system, either from before, or caused by the jump-start. When I put the battery in, it’ll be like soldering a peice of copper across the terminals and watching the whole thing catch fire. My $50 battery will be another hunk of useless lead.
How likely is #2? I just don’t want to destroy a perfectly good battery and have to tow the stupid thing anyway. Is there anything else I can check?
More background - I’ve only owned this car a couple of months: 1992 Chrysler Lebaron, 160K miles. It’s a beater, not needed for work, blah blah blah. I don’t know how old the old battery was - it had a warranty sticker on it that read “Dec” and “2” - I’m not sure if that was 1992, or 2002, but either way it’s oooold. I know there are some minor electrical problems: the spedometer occasionally doesn’t work, and it makes that “door open” chime when you hit a bump. But I’ve never had trouble starting it before, which is amazing.
So, do I risk the battery? Or get it towed? Beauty’s fate is in your hands.
Re-reading the description of the car, I think it’s quite possible you doubled the value of the car by sticking a new battery in it
Ok, seriously, I don’t think you have a dead short. If you did, the jumper cables would have gotten hot (maybe melted!), and the gf’s car may have stalled. You would have also probably seen some impressive sparks when you attached the jumper cables in the first place. You also don’t mention seeing smoke anywhere, and I’d suspect some if you had a dead short somewhere.
I think the battery is basically deader than a doornail. Probably the only reason it kicked over at all was that you were getting enough energy from the gf’s car to spin the starter a bit, and the engine happened to be at a point in its cycle where it didn’t need quite as much torque to spin it. Now you’ve put the engine at a point in its cycle where it needs a bit more force to turn it over, and the energy you are getting through the jumper cable just ain’t cutting it.
However, batteries don’t just up and die for no reason whatsoever. Probably the reason it died in the first place is that there is some kind of load that isn’t shutting off (possibly a wiring fault) when you turn off the ignition, and it’s draining the battery. This is especially likely considering the car’s history of electrical problems.
Well, the car was $500 when I bought it, so I did increase the value by at least 10%.
These were not the most rugged jump cables by any means, and I checked them a few times during the process to see if I was getting excess heat - they stayed cool.
So, I’m going to try the battery tonight, and we’ll see. I want to take it in and see if somebody can check the wiring for any obvious shorts. I have no intention of putting serious money in this car, though!
There is a practical way to check for short-circuits.
First, be sure to turn off anything that could drain current (lights, radio, etc). Then, remove one of the battery cables from the battery pole and let it touch lightly on the battery pole. If you see any sparks, then you have a short-circuit somewhere.
Or, you could connect a multimeter in series between the battery pole and the cable you removed. Since your car is so old, the reading should be ZERO amps. (Newer cars have lots of electronics that will always drain a few milliamps. In that case you have to consult a service manual to find the nominal value).
Success! The battery was definately dead. I put in the new one and she cranked right up. She ran a little rough, but I bet she was pouting since she hadn’t had any attention in awhile.
Dog80, I probably have a short, then. As I was attaching the cables to the posts, there were definately sparks. Little 'uns, but definately there. So, I need to use if fairly frequently to keep the charge up, or get the wiring fixed. I guess I could detach one of the cables if it’s going to sit for awhile. I’ll bring my multi-meter up next weekend (I really missed having it this week - I could have diagnosed the problem before the battery switch-out).
