Battery Problems due to Starter?

Don't know too much about how this works, so bear with me while I describe the problem: my 1997 Saturn SL-1 had a dead battery the other night. The tow truck driver said there was too much corrosion on the battery terminals to give it a jump. Because I was under the gun to get somewhere, I had the battery replaced. After they replaced it, the repair people also did their "starter - generator - battery system" diagnostic test, and said everything was OK.

The problem I was having with starting, which existed before the battery went dead: the car always started fine when it was cold. However, on days when I would do a lot of errands, and therefore be starting the car "warm", it often had trouble turning over. I'm not sure (it's only been 2 days so I've only had a few times of starting it warm), but it seems like this problem still exists.

Questions: was this "turning over" problem what eventually killed the battery? if the "turning over" problem keeps happening, is the starter the likely problem? anybody know a good website to refer me to that explains this part of the electrical system without getting too technical? i'm not doing any repair myself, but i do want to know the basics of how it works. all help appreciated.

Reply to
RichN
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If this is the original battery, it lasted pretty well. Six-seven years on a battery isn't bad, BUT if the tow truck driver replaced the battery but couldn't clean off the corrosion on your old one, you got hustled.

Hard starting, hard turnover, will of course put a strain on a battery. If one is old and weak, it can push it over the edge.

Whether you battery was bad or not remains to be seen. Could have just been dirty terminals, but could easily have been 'shot'.

Maybe you need to get the hard start issue dealt with. This is often a fuel related issue, but other things can cause it.

Reply to
Larry Smith

Your old battery was 6 years old if original and it needed to be changed. The starter may be drawing too much amperage and it takes more juice to start when it does this. When the repair shop replaced the battery and checked the system they probably found the charging system working and it started so they pronounced it fit. As long as your charging system can recharge the battery after each start, the battery won't be harmed. But if these warm starts seem labored and slow turning, you need the shop to check the amperage draw of the starter under these conditions. You could well need a starter. Next time it happens, feel your battery cables with your hands to see if they are extra hot. That would be a sign of high amperage draw or bad cables.

Reply to
MaxAluminum

i have never seen a battery so corrided that it couldent be cleaned and jumped. if the new battery dies then its probably an alternator problem. if you have full charge, but is still hard to turn over then its probably the starter. you also might want to check and see if the battery has to little cranking amps for that car. if its the wrong battery it might not be able to turn over properly.

Reply to
calebs67

Thanks, Max, your reply was helpful and easy to understand. By the way, the battery was supposedly new when I bought the car. The dealership actually didn't give me a new battery, but I took the car to have it checked within a couple of days of buying it, and those repair guys said the battery was bad, so I asked the dealership to replace it, which they did, somewhat under duress. So I think it's possible they didn't give me a totally new battery. Or if it turns out my starter is bad, could that have "ruined" the battery?

Am I going to be able to figure out what the battery cables look like? Are they those black and red things I saw when I looked under there (remember: newbie)?

Reply to
RichN

Hey Larry, thanks for your reply. The tow truck driver was AAA. It didn't cost me anything to get towed (other than my membership, which I buy automatically, being not very knowledgeable about this stuff). He didn't replace the battery - only towed me to the repair place. It was my decision to replace the battery instead of trying to clean off the corrosion. A mistake, as I now see, but I had an important event to get to.

I'm also wondering if AAA has a policy about this kind of thing - doing any kind of work at all other than jumping the car or towing it. Of course knowing what I know now I woulda cleaned the corrosion off myself and jumped it with the parking lot guard. I'll probably call AAA and ask how this works.

Reply to
RichN

hey caleb, thanks for your reply. yes, you're right (see my reply to previous message), i realized after the fact that the battery shoulda just been brushed off and jumped. the thing i'm trying to learn to get past is to just throw money at the problem and hurry and get it fixed. unfortunately, it usually works out i need my car functioning again pretty fast, and since i don't know what's going on (or lose my cool), throwing money at it seems the easiest out.

still haven't found a good repair place in my neighborhood, or near my work. the only one that's decent is only open on weekdays, which i find strange.

Reply to
RichN

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