Antvette

Ok, so here is the situation. A few days before this issue happened the car did not start and seemed like the starter was starting to go bad. Tried to turn it over 3 times with no clicks then it finally started. Battery is an Optimal Red Top about a few months old. Drove fine the last few days and finally when I start to drive to the airport, I turned on the a/c and it ran fine then the car seemed to turn off like all the electronics were failing. I turned off the a/c and it seemed to work fine, then i started to see a low voltage on the dash that dropped to the 9v range then gradually went back up to 10 or so. I turned off everything i could in the car and unplugged everything as well. Car seemed to drive and act fine. I went to my parking spot and turned off the car. No tones or anything...looked to be dead. I popped open the hood thinking maybe the alternator went or something, then I saw the positive terminal on the battery, where the two cables connect to the splice, the washers were completely melted to a puddle of molten metal at the bottom of the battery tray. So they just seemed to be loose and not making real contact without tightening them up. Well I couldn't do anything about it at the time, so I had to catch my flight. So I'm on my way back and I have some new washers to put in it's pace and some dielectric grease to put the wires and all back together. My hope is that the battery is just dead and not completely fried to where there's no way for it to start. My question now is, what could have caused it and what can I do to fix it to where I can drive it home then to a shop? It'll be like midnight tonight that I get to work on it to see if it'll even work. The a/c seemed to work just fine before with no issues, and this is the first time this has happened and the gauges seemed to be fine before this started happening. Since I'm not with the car and no power I cannot get any codes for it. Any ideas? Thank you!

dadaroo

Since you have already had a bad connection you need to know that dielectric grease is an INSULATOR.

Do not put it IN the circuit path, only AROUND it.

Nate@VanBortelChevy

I would be very careful, sounds like either the battery has failed and is internally shorted or you have another electrical issue. I'd bring a new battery with you, as the battery that is in the car should be tested.

chris.

I would try to bring a battery with you if possible, I know they are hard to find at an airport. haha
You may have a short somewhere, but my bet would be on the battery

LoneStarFRC

If I were you, I'd be giving your positive battery cable some SERIOUS eyeballs where it runs between the battery and the starter.

It sounds like you have a dead short to ground, and a new battery will merely provide the (short-lived but exciting) high current to do the exact same thing all over again as soon as you install it. Any battery directly shorted to ground generates a LOT of heat, due to the VERY high current flow. You may also have a fried alternator by now.

Point: Find the problem FIRST. Don't just throw another battery at it. Get a DVOM and check so see if the positive battery cable shows ANY continuity to ground, with either the key "on" OR "off".

Bill Curlee

You either have a DIRECT SHORT TO GROUND on the positive battery cable

OR

You have a loose connection causing a very high temperature issue on a very high current circuit. ANY loose/poor connection in a high current circuit will cause the loose connection to generate very high temps when the circuit is under load.

Disconnect the battery. Use an OHM Meter and measure the engine block to positive battery cable and Frame to positive battery cable.

YOU SHOULD READ "INFINITE RESISTANCE" on both readings. If you don’t read infinite, you need to figure out where the cable is shorted to ground.

Bill

Antvette

Ok, so when I landed I went ahead and reinspected the connector and the side post was melted in half. So needless to say I couldn't do anything about it at the time. So I came back after work with a new one and the tools to take the battery out if needed if I couldn't get it to start after just fixing the terminal. I kinda figured that since it's been running fine till the other day that at least I could replace that till I can take it to the shop to get fixed. Replaced the connector, and before I could test whether it could start on it's own someone asked if I needed a jump so I did. Car started right up no hesitation. So I guess the connector was just working itself loose or something, but I still dropped it off to get looked at since the starter was acting up anyways. Thanks for the help guys!