I had this car for about amonth the last 2 weeks it will not start randomly. I took it to advance auto parts and had the battery tested and starter alternator. They said the alternator was measuring 14v and the starter was good but the battery was kinda weak. I took it out to get a new one cause it was still under warranty, they tested it and said it was good so what could it be. When it won't start it will be like a slow crank but not enough juice to start it. If I put cable on it it will start right up. I know when a alternator goes bad the battery and brake light comes on that never happened . It runs good when I get it started could this be a bad battery ? Why do they keep testing good, and it's a 2003 sedan

 

Bsd battery or loose/dirty terminals. Remove the battery connectors and clean them and the posts up and reinstall them clean and tight. If the problem still happens it's your batery. When they tested your battery did they load test it or resistance test it? Load testing is the most reliable test.

 

They had me rev the engine and hold it for a while. Because if it was the alternator would it die soon or later? It seems like once or twice a week it will not start it will be a slow start but won't turnover , and when I put the cables on it starts right up. And they keep telling me my battery is good and want give me another one

 

Pick up a battery hydrometer (about $10.00) and test the individual battery cells yourself.



You may very well discover a defective cell not accepting a full charge

Telcoman

 

Could my radio have have something to do with it to cause its been coming on and off when it wants to but the heat and air buttons still work

 

Quite possible?

In addition to checking the battery cell specific gravity which you can measure hourly to see if the charge in the individual cells is dropping, you can also measure current draw with a multimeter with the vehicle not running.

I assume you've checked/cleaned your battery terminals/cable clamps and the clamps are tight and don't move?

Telcoman

 

Yes I cleaned them real good and they are tight I'm going to get a battery in a few. I hate I got the. Battery at autozone they know nothing, and my battery is still under warranty and they do not want to give me another one cause thier tester is say good. What could I say to make them give me another one

 

Get a hydrometer as suggested and if you find a bad cell, take it to AZ with the car and show them. Hard to argue with science.........

 

Find which fuse goes to your radio and pull that fuse. Just to check that you got the right one, start the car up and make sure the radio doesn't work. Run the car like this for a week and see if you still have your starting problems. If so, you can rule out the radio as a contributing factor.

Just make sure that the radio fuse doesn't also double as the HVAC fuse because it could present a safety hazard to drive around in a car that you can't use the fans and A/C to blow condensation off of the inside of the windshield.

It's probably your battery. Most batteries nowadays are non-serviceable so check to see that the one you have in there even has cell access ports before you go and get a hydrometer and try to check/test the cells.

How old is your battery anyways? Every battery comes with a sticker on it that says the month and year that it was produced.

 

Just replaced the battery started good the 1st time then went to go to the store and did the same thing . Should I replace the starter now they load tested it at advance and said everything was good. But if the starter was bad shouldn't it click, and I know what a bad alternator is. There is no ses light they scanned it anyway and said it was clear. I don't know what to do now

 

Sounds like a crankshaft sensor to me. If that's not it, then you have a electrical shortage somewhere. Replace the crankshaft sensor, I'm pretty sure that's it

 

It's not the crank sensor. That has absolutely nothing to do with a sluggish ability of the starter to turn the motor over. His crank sensor could be failing too, but it would be independent of the problem being reported here.

Climb under the car and make sure all of the connections on your starter are clean and tight. It's also possible that there is a bad ground or sheathing on a wire rubbing against the frame somewhere and beginning to arc/short.

Did you try pulling that radio fuse as mentioned earlier? Since you mentioned that as a potential contributing factor, it would be nice to be able to eliminate that up front before chasing our tail in a circle.

 

I pulled the radio fuse and it made the ac go crazy. But since I changed the battery it hasn't happened yet again so I was going to go for the rest of the week and see how it goes. It might have been the battery I'll let you know ifit happened again.

 

Now i notice My car won't start after I have been driving for a while. Whenever it won't start the battery is always very hot as well as the cables. A boost doesn't help but after it sits for a while it starts right up. Last time when it started, the check engine light was on. Got a load tested again alternator and starter good but gave code: P0340. Why are the battery cables getting so hot? The negative cable was actually smoking.

 

Not good. Go out there and disconnect the cables right now (negative cable first). It sounds like you have a short somewhere in the system. This could cause a fire and burn your car and house to the ground (if it's parked in the garage). Be careful not to burn yourself and make sure you wear rubber heeled shoes while working on the car and rubber gloves to insulate yourself so you don't get a shock while touching the battery terminals.

Someone posted something about 2 months ago where they had something screw up in their battery connector and it completely melted the fuse box on the positive cable. They needed to replace that whole chunk. I'm not sure what they ended up doing with this.