I tried to start my car this weekend & it don't. When I turned the igntion the car made a Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, sound as quick as a machine gun. The instrument panel lights flickered just a fast. When I stoped turning the key, all sounds & lights stopped. The sound was not that of a starter grinding & trying to catch its teeth. & all the lights work. The AC/Delco battery, w/ the eye, says its a little low but wouldn't that made the car starter seems like its dieing & slowly turning over? This didn't sound like that. I have never heard this sound before. Does anyone know what this is? Or has it happened to anyone? Please help?

I would check the starter just incase. its easy to check, and if thats not it atleast you can know that you checked it. Auto Zone looked at my for free

Sounds like a bad battery cable connection, probably at the battery... which would also prevent it from charging fully and explain why it's low. It's also possible that the battery has a bad connection internally, in which case it's new battery time.

It's not the starter.

My car also makes this sound. Usually for me it means the battery is low, but the strange part is if I try a few times the car will start up just fine!?

Thanks I will either get a new battery or go to Autozone & have them recharge it. If that doesn't fix my problem I will look at the battery connection & then the starter. I also saw that someone else had this problem & the solution was that the transmittion was not fully in Park?

to me it sounds battery related. I seem to have this happening to me all the time since some of the cars in my driveway sit for a long time in-between starts and the batteries get low.
Oh, and tranny not being in park should result in no sound at all when starting. It won't do anything.

When the tranny isn't in park or neutral, it wont let the starter turn at all. There would be no click sounds.

Id just look for the connections at the starter, battery, engine ground and alt. Make sure they are clean from the "battery fungus" and all.

WARNING!

The car is junk. You have that "Tick - Tick - Tick" sound that occurs just before it's gonna explode. Better send it to me for a closer look. I'll let you have my '86 TA in trade, and it's only got 48,000 miles. Man, I'm such a nice guy I can't stand it some times...

Seriously, the battery, connections, and/or cables should solve your problem. That includes the ground connections and cables.

Take care of your baby.

Thanks Darth. May the force be w/ you.

i agree with vader and RB83L69, i had a very simular problem.. battery was fully charged though but when i turned the key i had the very fast ticking. it would even do it when it was starting. i had 13 volts at the batt but like 11 inside. it was the power cable at the starter, nut was loose... try jiggling the wires for now and see if it gets better if u don't wanna check ur connections yet..

Depending on the batteries age it may also have alternator issues. These problems will occur if the Alternator doesn't supply a strong enough voltage to the battery to charge it. If your battery is old I would try replacing it. Then I would go with alternator and then the starter. It really sounds more like a battery/alternator problem more than the starter.

Thanks for all your replies. It was my battery after all. It was totaly shot. Even went to Autozone for them to recharge it & they said it almost shorted their machine. So I bought a $60 battery & the car starts up. Now my radio needs a code? I think I saw a post about that & is said to hit the "mute" button on the steering wheel? Is this correct?

Do you have the Delco-Lok or Theft-Lok II?

How do I tell which one I have?

Just press the mute button on the steering wheel radio control pad.