'02 Starting issues

Hi all,

Yesterday morning when I started my car to go to work, it was little hesitant to start. But it did start. When I turn my key to "on" all the indicator lights in the dashboard come up fine.

While coming back from work (approx. 9hrs later), it did the same thing. Felt like the power was not sufficient to start the car. But the car did start and was running fine.

On my way back home I had to stop at Costco, to see if they can balance & rotate my tires. So I parked my car, went to find out if they can do it at that time (which they couldnt) and came back to my car. It was less than 5 minutes.

I tried to start my car, and it wont. When I trun the iginition to "on" all the test indicator lights come up fine, horn was working, audio was working. But when I tried to fire it up, nothing happened. I checked to see if I put the transmission into parking properly, and it was fine. I even moved it to make sure it was completely in park.

I thought may be my battery is weak or dead. A very nice gentleman, who was picking up his truck there helped me jumpstart. And car started up.

So, am not sure if I need to replace my battery? Or just clear the battery connection (as the nice gentleman suggested). Or is there something else going on. I just wanted to get your thoughts before I take it to the dealer and get ripped.

thank you, BI

Reply to
bhai
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The car is an '02, and if it has the original battery, then i'd opt for going to Walmart have them load test it and if bad, replace it for less than $50 (installed, see comment below). If you have a voltmeter, then check the voltage at the battery terminal with the engine running at idle, it should read about between 13.5-14.5 volts. If within range, then the alternator is ok.

FWIW, my experienec on batteries is that typically they last about 3 years normal use , some more some less, even on top of the line batteries. Paying top dollar for battery that is guaranteed for 5 years or more is like paying for insurance for replacement.

Reply to
cmdrdata

Thank you very much cmdrdata. I really appreciate you helpful suggestions.

As I dont have a walmart nearby which will do load testing on my battery. I will take my car to the autozone and get it load tested.

Hopefully its just a weak battery and nothing else. I was looking through this group and looks like "Interstate" battery is a good replacement choice.

Any> snipped-for-privacy@vt.edu wrote:

Reply to
bhai

Your battery is 4 years old and cheap to replace. Just do it. :-)

Reply to
JimV

X-No-Archive: yes

I had a similar situation to you. My car died while visiting someone in the city. I called AAA and the guy said I needed a new battery. He jump-started my car and followed me over to a garage, they put in a new battery and the car's been running fine since.

Reply to
Bubby

Yesterday evening I tried to start my car and it did start once. But after that I stopped and tried to restart, but it didnt.

So, I removed the battery and took it for a load test to Autozone. There they told me, what you all have already indicated :), the battery is no good.

Today I am going to go and get a new battery and put it in. Any thing special I need to be doing while putting in the new battery? This will be my first DIY job, not that its a hard one but just want to be sure.

I am planning to buy "MTP-24F - Mega-Tron Plus". It has a CCA - 800 and CA - 1000. I live in MA, so hopefully this is a good choice. Any gripes about this one.

thank you > X-No-Archive: yes

Reply to
bhai

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