help a clueless car owner (battery issue)

[JJSCOTT2]

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I can't figure out how to get the damn thing out of there.

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Yeah that's kinda tough for a "clueless car owner" you should be able to look online and figure out how to do it yourself if you want, otherwise you have 2 choices. 1.) Get a voltmeter, jump start your car, and check the voltage you are getting from the alternator which should quickly confirm whether or not it's bad or 2.) take it to a shop.

[rjoefish]

I had a problem with my battery a bit ago, just had to tighten up the cables and it was good to go.

[d10]

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I can't figure out how to get the damn thing out of there.

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Yeah that's kinda tough for a "clueless car owner" you should be able to look online and figure out how to do it yourself if you want, otherwise you have 2 choices. 1.) Get a voltmeter, jump start your car, and check the voltage you are getting from the alternator which should quickly confirm whether or not it's bad or 2.) take it to a shop.

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Yeah I would get a voltmeter, cheap product at any electronics store. Check voltage across the battery, should be about 12v, check it again with the car running, it should be up to between 13-14v, if there is no change you need a new alternator. I'm guessing that will be the case.

As far as the car not starting on the freshly charged battery, autozone probably didn't recharge it enough or you might have not had a solid connection when reinstalling.

[Dilznoofus]

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Dilznoofus,

Correct, the car failed to start directly after being charged at AutoZone. Actually it was about 15 minutes later, I had my friend give me a ride to AutoZone and back because I couldn't use my own car.

Also, no, the engine didn't ever start. By sputtered, I meant that there was at least some current going to the ignition, whereas before I had the battery charged this morning, I couldn't even turn the headlights on.

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Ok, if I'm reading this correctly, before you had the battery charged your car was completely dead, no headlights no nothing. Once you got it charged, the car at least attempted to start, but never turned over. I'm going with alternator.

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If the battery was not damaged the starter motor would turn immediately after a good recharge with or without a working alternator.

Someone else mentioned a bad connection, but it doesn't sound like that's the problem. When the connection at the battery is bad you will generally completely lose all juice upon turning the key, at which point you have to work the connection at the post to get any juice back and repeat till your connection is good enough to turn the starter. If your dashlights are staying on and you can repeatedly turn the key and get some clicking/turning sounds then generally the trouble is in the battery, the starter motor or the starter solenoid.

Do you have any friends who would be willing to let you swap batteries temporarily to find out if your car will start with another battery? That would be the next thing I'd try. It really sounds like a bad battery to me from what you've been able to tell us.

Tell us what kind of car it is. I might be able to walk you thru pulling it out. You will need some tools.

Edit: Just remembered you said with the "fresh" battery your headlights would only dimly come on. If that's true you're not getting enough juice, which means it's unlikely that you have any starter/solenoid problems. Almost certainly your battery. It's either that or something weird and complicated that I wouldn't know how to fix.

Edit 2: lol, I thought when you said you couldn't figure out how to get it out you meant the battery. Are you talking about removing the alternator? I would really recommend testing a different battery before pulling the alternator out. You may or may not have a bad alternator, but it is not your central concern ATM. A good fresh battery will start a car even if you have no alternator at all. Your car isn't starting with your current battery even after being freshly recharged. Changing your alternator won't fix this.

[Billy Bibbit]

It's a 99 Camry. I was talking about the alternator, I'm not so clueless that I don't know how to change a battery!

I think I figured out the problem. I saw the post about tightening up the cables, so I tried that and I was able to start the car this morning. The negative terminal is really worn down though. No matter how much I try to tighten it, the wire still wiggles all over the place. I'm going to go to AutoZone later today and buy a new negative terminal, should that solve the problem?

Good thing I don't have to change the alternator, I was not looking forward to that job.

[Klompy]

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Do you have any friends who would be willing to let you swap batteries temporarily to find out if your car will start with another battery?

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There's no reason to go to all this work when just running jumper cables to your car would do the exact same thing.

OP I don't think it's your battery, but these things are really hard to figure out when you're not actually there. If a fully charged battery wouldn't start your car I'd say there's a good chance it's your starter, but this is just a rough guess fromsome guy on the internet.


edit: billy, there's a good chance your loose on the battery too.

[Dilznoofus]

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Do you have any friends who would be willing to let you swap batteries temporarily to find out if your car will start with another battery?

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There's no reason to go to all this work when just running jumper cables to your car would do the exact same thing.
OP I don't think it's your battery, but these things are really hard to figure out when you're not actually there. If a fully charged battery wouldn't start your car I'd say there's a good chance it's your starter, but this is just a rough guess fromsome guy on the internet.


edit: billy, there's a good chance your loose on the battery too.

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Yeah I was a bit inebriated. Jumper cables should be just as good for the diagnosing. It's probably not the starter though, since he's reporting dim lights and other indicators of a bad battery/connection.

I wouldn't have thought it was a bad connection given his description but apparently that was it.

Sounds like you found the problem Billy. Change that negative cable out and give us results.

[Billy Bibbit]

Well, I changed the cable terminal. On the way home I stopped for take-out, and when I got back into the car, it still wouldn't start. I opened the hood and tapped on the terminals with my wrench and then it started fine, but ARGH this is so frustrating.

[Dilznoofus]

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Well, I changed the cable terminal. On the way home I stopped for take-out, and when I got back into the car, it still wouldn't start. I opened the hood and tapped on the terminals with my wrench and then it started fine, but ARGH this is so frustrating.

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This is good though. At least you can be pretty certain that you've got it diagnosed. Battery connections can be a pain sometimes. Toyota's use the standard top-post terminals right? If so, you may need to sort of massage the terminal cables on the posts until they find a good solid contact patch. Apply some downward pressure and twist them like you're turning a screw. Then tighten the nut up really snug.

Edit: Another thought. If you only changed the terminal and not the entire cable, it's possible that the wires coming out of the cable are not getting a good connection to your new terminal end because they're corroded and nasty.

[Ray Zee]

bad cables are the problem. take a screw driver or pocket knife and clean BOTH the pos and neg insides where they touch your batteryt terminals. then check to make sure no corrosion in the wires themselves.
whats happpening is your alternator isnt getting to charge your battery or the juice from the battery cant flow out to the regulator.
alternators rarley go bad. the belt comes loose and stops your charging. tighten the belt when thtat happens.

95% of the time you dont get juice its the battery or cables.