Car wont start but clicks with a 6 month old battery?
click isnt alternator. click is starter solenoid, BUT the solenoid clicks from an almost dead battery, a damaged starter tooth, a bad connection at the starter, a weak power supply to the starter,a bad ground. 1st we must make sure the battery is fully charged! next examine all battery connections a little emery cloth used on the inner clamp where the cable clamps to the battery and the post or contact surface is a good start. is there swelling behind the clamp? that bluish **** that apears on the cables is agresive stuff! it can and will work its way under the cable protective coating and it will almost completely stop voltage from flowing (amps) many people have mentioned that they find the radio and the headlights work at this time. the fact is a radio and headlight have minimal resistance or in other terms could be lit up with a wire the thickness of a pencil lead. the starter demands a cable 1/4 inch thick! why? its like compairing the effort needed pushing a broom to the effort pushing a car loaded with people. we need only our arms for the broom but we need a strong back, legs arms etc for the car. the starter takes power enough to spin pistons (the more pistons the more power needed) a crank shaft, a cam shaft, push lifters, open and close rockers against heavy springs and spin a flywheel. all of this action while still allowing enough voltage to send fuel and spark to the needed locations. quite a demand.
Car making a whining noise. Now it won't start?
I noticed on my way home from work my car was making a whining sound. Stopped at the store and now my interior lights turn on but the car won't start. It's making a clicking sound like it wants to start but won't. So I'm sitting here waiting for a jump and hoping it's just a dead battery -_- someone enlighten me
How long should you let the engine idle after jump starting a car?
Based on many years of experience in a cold climate plus a comprehensive knowledge of batteries and alternators the answer is idling is virtually useless.At idle your vehicle will barely keep the ignition and other battery draws powered. Turn on the lights, heater and rear defroster and you are discharging the battery at idle.The amount of current your alternator produces depends on how fast it is rotating. Higher RPMs = higher current.The other problem is that there is no way to fast charge a battery from an alternator. It takes time. The chemical reaction of recharge can only go so fast and the colder the battery the slower it goes.If you required a jump start your battery is really low. When you have started sit and rev your vehicle at 2000 to 2500 rpm for 20 minutes. You can turn on the heater and read a book. At that point the battery is still only partially charged and if it is really cold it may not start after sitting for hours.If you have a battery charger, connect it and charge the battery. If you don’t have one, buy a decent automatic charger from a local auto supply store. $40.00 or $50.00 and it will outlast your vehicle by many years.If you live in a cold climate make sure you have a block heater and use it.
Why can it take so long to jump start a car?
Min Ern, ten minutes does seem like a long time for a jump start, but there are some reasons why this might occur. I'm not gonna open myself up to getting sued by telling you how connect jumper cables. Before connecting them, both vehicles should have their keys in the 'off' position. Make sure everything in both vehicles' electrical is turned off: radio, lights, wipers, Air Con... Once hooked up, start the car with the good battery first. Unless the vehicle is over thirty years old, do not touch the gas pedal. Check the gauges to be sure that everything is OK. Let the good car run for two or three minutes before trying to start the car with the dead battery. Do not touch the gas pedal and try to start the dead car. Crank the starter until the engine starts, but for no longer than fifteen seconds. If the engine doesn't crank, double check your jumper cables to make sure you have a good connection, wait another three minutes before trying again. If you still don't succeed, it's time to look at the age of the battery. Some of the cheaper batteries only for about four years, especially in very hot or cold climates.If your battery is worn out, it won't hold a charge and it will need a longer time to become charged back up. Hope that helps. But in the meantime, keep your foot off the gas. The computer know just how much to use, and changing that could actually impede starting. Good luck!
Car won't start..battery/alternator/star... good?
For the past few months now my car (2008 Pontiac Torrent) will periodically not start. It began happening every so often, maybe once every month to month and a half. It is now beginning to happen more often. The past three days I've had to jump it to get it to start. It doesn't turn over, just a click. One time, the lights inside were flickering and it sounded like a static/buzzing type noise was coming out of the speakers. I had my alternator, starter, and battery checked at autozone and they said they were all fine. If I drive it for a while, then I can start it again a while later. If I don't drive for a day or two, it won't start. What is going on?? (Please put your responses in layman's terms- I am no mechanic) Thanks! :)
2003 Ford Taurus - Starting Issues?
03 Ford Taurus giving me some tricky issues with starting. Last week I noticed my car was taking a bit longer than normal to start, but only here and there. Other times it started with no issue. I thought that it was probably the starter and was just waiting for it to die before I replaced it. Last wed. my car took a few cranks to finally start up. It sounded like it was trying to start but just couldn't. My headlines, radio, interior lights were all working and the car was not making a clicking sound and it didn't sound like a dead battery. The engine was making more of a cranking sound than I would expect to hear from a dead battery. After about 3 cranks the car started and then I ran errands all day with no issue. I took my car to the shop on Friday so they could check it out and they said it wasn't the alternator or starter but it was the battery connections and cables, so they replaced the connectors and 1 of the batter cables because of corrosion. My car ran just fine after that and had no issues cranking until last night ( 4 days after getting it fixed). I went to crank my car and the lights/radio came on but the engine was making no noise at all. It was different than before because this time it was making no sound at all, no clicking sound or anything. My car cranked just fine this morning, although with a little bit of a lag. Has anyone ever heard of anything like this? I am going to take it back to my mechanic but they say that it needs to be broke to fix it and since it started up just fine this morning, they may not be able to figure out whats wrong.. Any advice would be great! Thank you in advance!