got in everything goes on like usual (dome light radio infl rst etc) go to turn it on CLICK everything shuts off. Its holding an extremely weak charge just enough for the dome light to be barely lit and a weak alarm. Every thing powers back up when I hook up a jump to it, but wont turn over, it just gives a series of rapid clicks. take off the jumps everything turns off.... any ideas... short? fusible link? someone give me an idea where to look for shorts or location of a fusible link

 

one of two things. Either your battery cables need to be cleaned and tightened or you have a bad cell in the battery. Have the battery load tested. I'm leaning tward the cabel connections are dirty and need to be tightened

 

i thought about that but what about when i have the jumpers on it..... isnt it technically bypassing the battery and the terminals

 

not if you have a bad cell in the bat. and normally jumper cabels are not big enough to handle the load that the starter would put on them. jumpers are just helpers to the battery.

 

makes sense.. how would i test it?? multi meter?? what readings to look for?? for the quick responses... exactly why i love this site

 

well to test a bat you really need a load tester or carbon pile. your local parts store should have one.

 

jump your car to start it then remove the positive wire from the battery. If your car stops running it's not your battery and it's probably your alternator. Thats what I just got done going through. Remove it and take it to autozone or somewhere that can test it to see if its bad or just not putting out enough power in which case you would need a bigger alternator...

 

That not a good thing to do. The electrical system runs off the battery and the alternator is primarily used to maintain the charge in the battery. Disconnecting a battery cable on a running vehicle will cause a voltage spike and could possibly damage any electronics. Before computer controlled vehicles I know it was common practice to test an alternator with that method which was fine for that technology as most of it was mechanical. Most electronics in computer controlled vehicles are solid state and are susceptible to damage from voltage spikes and ESD. Even a static discharge form your finger after sliding across the carpet can produce thousands of volts and can damage electronic components, the same goes for removing a battery terminal. It may not produce damage the first time but the effect of voltage spikes on electronic components is cumulative.

 

the whole thing was I couldnt even jump it... Took the battery in got it replaced for free. Now I need to find out if the dead battery was a fluke or if something is killing it

 

Dont forget to check whether or not the alternator is charging, ofcourse, but an important thing would be whether or not the alternator is overcharging the battery at starts which will boil over the electrytes in the battery. If so, you have a bad diode in the alternator which could be fixed with a new regulator....
If thats the case, just get a new alternator.

 

hes right, make sure to either test the alternator or get a volt meter and see how many volts it is putting out. with the car running the alternator post on the back should put out about 13 to 13.5 volts, and the number on the volt meter should agree with your gauge inside the car. if you put the volt meter leads on the positive and negative terminal of the battery it should read about the same as the post on the back of the alternator. this is not the best way to test a battery or alternator but it will give you an indicator of whether or not one of the two items is going bad.

the best way is to take them somewhere and have it tested