Corvette-Pilot
Well-known member
I was wondering what you guys might think this is.
I had replaced the headlights on my car and tested them. All seemed fine. I then went to start it and all I got was one click. It was the first day we had a really cold night so I thought the battery just gave out.
Went and bought an Exide, put it in and the car started. I drove it to work this week. Being paronoid I had the digital voltage gage on and watched it like a hawk. Seemed to stay around 14.2 - 14.6 volts. Got out of work, stopped at my parents house. Again watching the voltage, no problems. Went to leave and "click" dead again???
I didn't have much in the way of tools over there but for a while the interior lights work but after a couple more tries even they went blank. There was a clicking niose coming from the dash. I think it was a relay trying to open/close but didn't have the juice.
Hooked up a battery charger, nothing. All I saw was the chargers current meter bounce up and down to the beat of the clicking noise. It drew no current to speak of.
I removed the neg cable and measured the battery. It seemed to be around 12 volts but when I hooked it back up the voltage dropped to about 8 volts.
I don't think it is the alternator since the voltage stayed above 14. Since it did this to the original battery and the new one I don't think it was just a bad battery. With my luck all the planets were in line that day and I hapened across 2 bad ones. So I think there has to be something pulling it down and it seems to be intermittant.
I'm kind of guessing at a shorted starter motor?
Right now it is at the dealer. They told me the new battery was dead and wouldn't take a charge at all. So I had to pick it up and buzz 20 miles to where I bought it, get an exchange and rush back to the dealer with another new one.
They didn't get to look at it today so I hope they can tomorrow.
If it wasn't getting cold I might have had it towed to my place to work on it but I just wanted it done. I told AAA not to jump it as I wanted it to be in the broken state at the dealer so they can't say it works fine now.
Any ideas?
I had replaced the headlights on my car and tested them. All seemed fine. I then went to start it and all I got was one click. It was the first day we had a really cold night so I thought the battery just gave out.
Went and bought an Exide, put it in and the car started. I drove it to work this week. Being paronoid I had the digital voltage gage on and watched it like a hawk. Seemed to stay around 14.2 - 14.6 volts. Got out of work, stopped at my parents house. Again watching the voltage, no problems. Went to leave and "click" dead again???
I didn't have much in the way of tools over there but for a while the interior lights work but after a couple more tries even they went blank. There was a clicking niose coming from the dash. I think it was a relay trying to open/close but didn't have the juice.
Hooked up a battery charger, nothing. All I saw was the chargers current meter bounce up and down to the beat of the clicking noise. It drew no current to speak of.
I removed the neg cable and measured the battery. It seemed to be around 12 volts but when I hooked it back up the voltage dropped to about 8 volts.
I don't think it is the alternator since the voltage stayed above 14. Since it did this to the original battery and the new one I don't think it was just a bad battery. With my luck all the planets were in line that day and I hapened across 2 bad ones. So I think there has to be something pulling it down and it seems to be intermittant.
I'm kind of guessing at a shorted starter motor?
Right now it is at the dealer. They told me the new battery was dead and wouldn't take a charge at all. So I had to pick it up and buzz 20 miles to where I bought it, get an exchange and rush back to the dealer with another new one.
They didn't get to look at it today so I hope they can tomorrow.
If it wasn't getting cold I might have had it towed to my place to work on it but I just wanted it done. I told AAA not to jump it as I wanted it to be in the broken state at the dealer so they can't say it works fine now.
Any ideas?
ad ).
