Car won't start... PLease help

[whytry]

Went to take the car for a drive, would not start - low battery, put Sears charger, (the one with selectable 2,10 or 50 amps) I had it on 10, let it sit for about 10 minutes, cranked over a couple times but would not start, then shifted to 50 amps, (stated for starting) car started perfect and let it idle for a moment, jumped out of the car to unhook the charger and the car died... Crap, so I tried to start it and it cranked 2x but would not start. Put charger back on it @ 10 amps and let it sit for a couple minutes tried it again, cranked slowly then clicked and then nothing!!! Charger started making a funny noise so unplugged it all. Checked battery with voltmeter and it showed close to 5 volts!! Then went to pull headlights on and nothing worked at all in the car not even the dome light, went to battery shows 4 volts now and dropping... Took out of car and charged and went back to 12 volts, put back in car and began to drop again all the way down to where nothing would come on..... I switched to Ohms and it shows approx 4 ohms load on battery while voltage is dropping..... Unhooked battery checked terminals and showed 1....

I was putting new carpet and Fat mat in the car before this happened and before I put the seats in etc, I checked all the wires and it was fine, headlights worked, everything worked... Battery is an Optima Red Top.....

HELP!!!

[whytry]

:pat: :pat: This is here becuse it is parked outside and its supposed to rain tomorrow, and to top it off I have my daily driver in the garage in front of the Camaro that won't move...... :pat: :crying: :banghead: :banghead:

[Bill Howell]

Sounds like an interal short in your battery to me. Do you have another battery, maybe out of the other car you can use as a tester? Optiums are hard to recharge if they ever go dead.

[whytry]

Hey Bill, quick update. I had the battery charging for awhile and it was holding 11.8 for almost an hour. I then hooked it to the car and watched my digital voltmeter drop like a rock to 4 volts!! I tried to turn the headlights on and got nothing.... I then tried to plug the charger in and hook it up to the battery as it was connected to the car and the charger went into protect!!! Somewhere there is a short or something, but I have no idea where to look. I looked everywhere where a screw is under the carpet and they are all clear from any power wires, plus I taped them out of the way when I began this project.... Any ideas? Anybody?

[Sparky67]

You might to want to leave the battery on the engine start a little bit longer. I also have a sears charger with the engine start, but to get it work correctly. I tend to leave it on for at least 5 to 10 minutes before I start the car. When you get the car running, let it stay on for a few more minutes then take it off the charger.

Jeff

[zbugger]

Is your battery trunk mounted? Take a look at all the wires again. It sounds to me like you have a direct short somewhere in the line. Also, re-trace the steps you took when taking things apart and putting them back together. Also, make sure you don't hook the battery up backwards.

[David Pozzi]

Pull a battery out of another car and try that. Get your daily driver out of the garage and move the Camaro inside, then charge the Optima very slowly for 24 hrs. You can't charge a battery in a fiew minutes at 10 amps if that's what you are trying to do. If the battery is super dead, the charger will take a while to get going. Optima batteries don't "like" to be fully discharged like that, it harms the battery, so don't mess around with trying to charge it for just a fiew minutes, give it a long charge.

It's either a bad battery or your starter may be shorted or the drive stuck engaged. When you connect the battery lead, are there sparks?

[whytry]

When I connect the battery there is sparks at the post, but I can't see anything anywhere else. I also don't smell anything burning, like wires... I know the battery won't charge in almost an hour, but by doing that I was able to atleast check to see if it will hold a charge at all.... How do I know if the starter is stuck engaged? I was trying to crank it when everything went dead.....

I can't get the daily driver out yet, the Camaro is directly behind it. I might be asking the neighbors to help me push if it comes down to it.....

Are there any key wires I should check on the positive side that would cause the battery to drain that fast and not pop a fuse? Am I thinking about that correctly? If it was a fusable situation it would have popped the fuse right?

[paul67]

Battery shot sound like you've got dead plates sometimes they hold then drop , change the battery.

[TonyL]

tried yanking fuses yet? get a fresh battery and a voltmeter, yank fuses till it stops dropping and pops back up. then you know what system the short is in.

Sounds like a shorted out battery though. it happens.

[Bill Howell]

Sounds like an interal short in your battery to me. Do you have another battery, maybe out of the other car you can use as a tester? Optiums are hard to recharge if they ever go dead.

I still think you have a bad battery. :slap:

[Steve68]

ME too, Push that thing

[harshman]

disconnect the battery and then jump start using terminals only.

[whytry]

Thank god its not raining yet. Can I take my Red Top to any store to exchange it? I bought it @ an All Parts in San Jose, and I am not finding one of those here in El Dorado Hills area. Can I take the red top to Auto Zone?

[harshman]

When you connect the battery to the car there are sparks? If so then something is on and is draining it. Sparks = draw. I have seen a battery short out so bad that you can't even jump it - that's why you need to take both terminals off and jump it by clamping the jumper cables to the car's cables. Take the battery back once you get the car out of the rain.

[whytry]

Alright, 1st off thanks for the help guys. I think I fixed it. I charged the battery overnight on slow 2 am charge, ran jumper cables from the battery to the battery cables on the car, started to drain again, disconected then then jumped it straight from my daily driver the the battery cables heard a "clunk" sound, went to look to see if I saw anything nothing, but battery cables for the Camaro were now reading close to 13 volts, jumped in the car and the the engine cranked over!! Jumped it with the other car got it running and swapped cars. Headlights worked, radio, everything works now, so I shut it off, and ran the battery to the battery cables and it is not draining it now, kinda wierd, but has anybody else ever had a starter solenoid lock up before? I remember somewhere reading something about their starter solenoid sticking and when it unsticks it clunks real loud....I am not sure if that was my problem but now everything seems to be working ok.

THANKS FOR THE HELP AGAIN... PLEASE CLOSE OUT EMERGENCY!!

[Jim Nilsen]

I had a solenoid that stuck with the starter drive engaged,when you shut the car off it still kept cranking. Had to grab a hammer and smack it to get it to stop. Fortunately I could get in to the spot with the hammer. Tried to get it to stick again and it wouldn't. Carried the hammer with me for 3 weeks before it happened again so I pulled it out and put in a different one. The spring had gotten weak and just wouldn't push it back. It sounds like yours got stuck it the middle of the stroke on the plunger.

Good to hear it is better now but I would put another solenoid in if you want to be sure it won't happen again. For the cost it just isn't worth waiting for it to happen again unles you want to carry a hammer or long steel rod to smack it with.

Jim Nilsen

[Madspeed]

Well I figured i Should post a couple dos and donts for electrical and jumpstarting your vehicles b4 somone has some seriouse issues. First thing
Never Ever Ever Leave the car running that your using to jump the dead one with (get High quality cables, They will have a lot of weight to them if they are high qual) run the eng around 2k to 2500 to charge dead car for a min or two then SHUT IT OFF completly.The reason is that when u crank the dead car u can cause the voltage reg to Freak out and tell the Alt to put out Way to much voltage and amperage ( a spike if you will) and Fry your Ecm. 2nd connect your jumpers Pos to pos on batt of the host car first Neg next, then go ahead and hook the pos cable to the battery of the dead car then Connect the neg cable to the ENGINE (NOT BATTERY). You all do realize that a battery makes Hydrogin gasses? (Hindenburg ring anny bells?) I have seen 2 people Blow thier friggin faces off that way. all You need is a spark and Boom ( a battey exploding is like a BOmb going off)

ok next NEver test your charging system by removing the battery cable while the engine is running (same thing reg has no reference voltage and can make the alt Spike and Burn out some of your exspensive electronics. you test a charging system with a load on it and a voltmeter, a Vat 40) If you dont have one at least bust out your voltmeter run eng around 2k to 2500 and read voltage at batt terminals Ud like to see over 12.5 and less than 13.8 Ish with everything u can turn on On. If you dont have the tools or knowladge take the damed thing to the auto parts store most have a spin tester. Thge battery can be allso taken to an auto parts store they will most likely charge it and test it for free.

feel free to Pm me if you need electrical questions answered.
I am No friggin genius But I do carry a few certs in autmotive electrical.
Ase Gm Blah blah blah
ken F

[OHCbird]

Brad- did you properly shim the starter when you put it in? Chebby stuff is notorious for making funny noises or sticking if not shimmed right.

If you let your cars sit for a while, get one of those small trickle chargers- they look like the 'black boxes' used to power phones, shavers, etc. They put about 2-5amps out, and shut off automatically. Boats guys use the hell out of them... You can get them from Guest, MAD electrical, Ancor, etc.