My elderly mother is here for a visit and we went to take a ride, her car wouldn't start. It's an Oldsmobile Calais or something like that, I don't know the year, probably 2000. She has it in the shop for regular tune ups and that kind of thing.
So it was just dead. I'm assuming the battery, but being Saturday afternoon, everything is closed until Monday. I tried calling her car place (where she buys her cars and gets them serviced) but they're closed too. I was hoping to find out if the battery was still under warranty. It looks very clean, but I can't tell how old it is. It's Interstate.
A friend is coming over later with jumper cables to see if we can start it...am hoping she just left an interior light on, though she never uses those lights. It would have to be a really freak thing, like she bumped one on. Her headlights are auto off when she shuts off the car.
But I went out again just to see if I could hear any noise when I tried to start it (no, though maybe I heard a really faint click, but that also might be my imagination...definitely not a "starter dead" click). I put the key in the ignition, and surprise...got the "key in the ignition" dinging. I turned on the wipers and they went about halfway across the windshield, then it all died. (The car still would not start, grind or anything...dead) i removed the key and repeated, and you'd get about two seconds worth of juice, then the wipers and dinging would stop. But after that, the dials (speedometer, temp, and other dials) went crazy. They went all over the place, then back into zero position. And every time I'd put the key in, I'd repeat this: wipers and dinging would go about two seconds, then stop and the hands on the dials go nuts. Then nothing.
Any ideas on what this might be? I'm still hoping it's either a bad battery or just dead because she bumped a light on.
TIA,
Deb