Starts up right away with a jump start, runs fine, park it over night, go to start it next morning...just makes a clicking sound.
Horn, lights, radio, all work.
Car does have a alarm system and after-market stereo, but has worked fine with these items since we bought it in the summer.
Thoughts on what we need to start trouble shooting first and/or how to resolve this problem?
Thanks in advance!
-MACE-
Agreed, sounds like a battery or ground/cable issue.
Thanks guys, will check out the battery and cables tomorrow...looks like we gotta take off the brace and windshied washer fluid tank to get at the battery. Believe it looks like 1/2 inch bolts holding the brace and 3/8 inch bolds for the WWF tank?
Thanks again
13mm socket for the brace, 10mm socket for the washer fluid tank.
The "park it over night" sure makes it sound more like a drain on the battery more than a poor connection. But that's just my view.
I'd pull one line off the battery and put an amp meter in line with the car shut off to see what the draw on the battery is. The computer takes very little in "standby". I'm guessing at the number, but I'd worry about any battery drain over .1 or .2 amps. (make sure the doors are closed and no interior light is on) My mothers Intrepid (she's a spunky gal in her mid 70's) had a similar problem, but she didn't tell me the radio stopped working. 300 miles left on the warranty and a new radio fixed the the dead battery (that one took 1 to 3 days to go dead depending on how well it had charged the battery while running).
Does this stereo have one of those giant capacitors often used with sub woofers? With a heavy wire going from the capacitor directly to the battery? That is a good place to look for a problem, yes, even if the stereo works perfect.
If you can't measure the drain on the battery, start by pulling out a few fuses after shutting it off until you go through them all. The fuse that stops the battery from going dead leads to the fault/short. I'd start with the after market radio especially if it has a "super cap". Hopefully if it has a super cap, it is properly fused! That sucker could blow your dash apart if it shorted real good!)
Also, an old girlfriends car had a problem with the battery going dead over night. It was the alarm. Sometime in the middle of the night, it would turn on or flash the lights until the battery was dead. If it had activated the siren also, that would have been a LOT easier to figure out! The car was a POS so I disconnected the after market alarm. The best thing that could have happened is for it to get stolen, but it didn't. :-(
Just about everything is metric on GM cars starting in the late 70's ...
_________________________________________________________________ Dennis Smith -1971 Trans Am - 455 H.O. - M21 4speed - Cameo white/blue stripe- <
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