intermitent starting issue

[Cward]

Well, haveing a problem with the rescue project. I've been driving the car for about a month. Anyhow, when I put the wheel bearing in it to get it on the road the battery was dead. Jumped and let it run for a while to charge the battery. Drove it for like a week. Get to work one day and shut it off as the gate wasn't open. Sit for like two minutes and the car wouldn't start. hmmm Pulled the battery terminals and cleaned them and jumped started it. Drive it to my parking spot etc is flashing off and on and doing crazy things. Park it and it doesn't start again. Put a battery in it after work and it starts right up. Okay cool. Fastforward to today, about 2 weeks later. Driving along come to a stop sign. And manage to stall it out, lots of traffic due to road construction, any way. Car is dead as a doornail. No lights no nothing.
Push it out of the way. Monkey with the connections some still nothing. A guy stops and gives me jump. Took a couple minutes if that and it started right up. Now I was only like a mile from home everything seems good. Get home etc is flashing again, and the motor pulls down when I open the door. Look at it some more. Step on the brakes and it dies. Dead as a doornail again. Any thoughts, cables? Battery again? I noticed the negative terminal is a little loose, and doesn't look like it will tighten anymore with out breaking. I'm going to swap that terminal tommorrow. Do you think that will fix the problem? I pulled the neg terminal off and put it back and it didn't even spark. Suggestions, PLEASE!

 

[Cward]

Just wanted to clarify dead as a doornail.lol No dome lights, no chimes. No power at all. That's how it sits right now. I'll have to grab another battery I think too.

 

[Cward]

Well, replaced the negitive battery terminal and cleaned all the connections up again. Through a battery in it and it started right up last night. No problems yet.

 

[dstig1]

This is a sign of a bad battery. SHOs do flaky things with a bad battery. Just becasue it is new doesn't mean it is good... I had a 1 yr old battery do this to me. I had seen it before so I had a good idea what it was though I was hesitant to believe it could be the batt since it was so new...

Proabably an internal short or something like that.

 

[omeara7]

It could have been a bad ground. Replacing that negative battery terminal might have solved your problems. Brand new batteries can be dead on arrival but it is very rare as they're all tested before shipping.

 

[SHO Continental]

might want to check the battery connections at the silenoid on the starter.. mine came loose once, same exact symptoms.

 

[Cward]

might want to check the battery connections at the silenoid on the starter.. mine came loose once, same exact symptoms.

Yep, already checked them. It's running now. Haven't had any problems the last 2 days so, we'll see what happens.