Please Help Car Won't Start
 

Ok, just got this formula. It was hard to start when I picked it up. I just assumed that it was the battery. Went down to autozone and got a duralast with 650 cca. Car cranked and drove home. Woke up the next morning and needed a jump. When ever I try to crank the car it will not do anything, then I turn it off and crank it again and it lags like the battery is bad. What could this be? :confused:

power drain?

The first question is the condition of the battery. If the battery is low after sitting overnight you may have a drain. A good way to test this is to check the battery voltage when you park it and then again in the morning. Assuming that the battery stays about the same overnight, say 12.4 at night and 12.3 in the morning, there isn't any major draw. After you eliminate that, start suspecting other items.

If the car doesn't seem reach appropriate crank rpm, the starter might be going out and drawing too much juice. A starter drain test will quickly determine whether this is the case. Autozone should be able to handle one of those, but if they can't...

-Hook up load tester to battery pos and neg
-Place amp probe around pos cable to starter
-Crank and observe peak amp reading

More than about 200 amps generally indicates a bad starter. Other items to check are clean, tight terminals and connections.

If you do have a bad starter, do yourself a favor and don't buy it from Autozone. If you check the local Yellow Pages you should be able to find a shop that does rebuilding in-house. Just taking your car to that shop would also be a good first step. General mechanics can be pretty useless at diagnosing starting and charging problems.

Had the battery checked and it tested good. So I think it is the starter. How hard is it to replace. Or should I just take it to a mechanic?

I've done many starters before. If you have a decent set of hand tools it should be a breeze. Labor time probably runs about .6 hours by the book.

If you've never done a starter before you should find a friend who has. Just make sure you get a good rebuilt or new starter. You don't want the parts store rebuilds.

There is a starter shop downtown that I checked. He said that he doesn't have any in. Would it be okay to go to O'rielly's or none of the part stores? How about buying one new from the part stores?

do a voltage drop test to make sure its the starter.

The most important part of fixing any automotive problem is correct diagnosis. If you can find a shop which can rebuild the starter on-site you'll be ahead. The parts store will sell you parts without diagnosis. A rebuild shop should be able to quickly diagnose your problem and rebuild your starter on the same day.

The parts store sells lots of good stuff. The rebuild shop that I used to work at took a number of (parts store) failed units apart. Again and again we found used parts and substandard rebuilds. I wouldn't buy a starter from a parts store unless it was last resort, or a new unit.

Are you still running the stock-original battery cables?
Have you checked the other cable ends, to make sure they are clean and tight?
How dose the positive side look?

Past history with the stock Gm Ac Delco batteries have had problems where they would fail internally and leak acid out the positive post. Which would not only run down the side of the battery on to the frame rail. As well into the positive cable. Do you see any major rust or battery acid stains around the battery?

If so this could have been a case here, where it was never cleaned or replaced. Which would mean you could have internal corrosion problem with the positive cable.