My car just wont start. It makes a rapid clicking noise, but the engine wont even turn over. The digi dash is also quite dim, I think the battery is dead. I know I can't just jump the car as with other cars what should i do??

Thanks,
marthpodi

 

1. It does sound like the battery's dead.
2. You can jump the 'vette like any other car. Just gotta be careful and follow the instructions printed inside your compartment cover.

If you happen to be stuck at home, test the battery with a voltmeter. If the battery's bad, take it out and buy yourself a Diehard or whatever brand you'd prefer. If you're stuck somewhere else, have it jumped and drive home. No need to spend extra dough at a shop just for batteries when you can do it yourself. Good luck. :cheers:

 

You can jump start your C4. If your battery is at the end of its guarantee period, I would recommend replacing it. But if not, you can charge it back up and then measure the leakage current to determine if it is excessive and the reason for your battery being discharged.

 

you can push start it also. (that's where you put it in neutral, push it to a good speed, key-on, let out clutch in first or second and it should fire up, push clutch back in) (can be done in reverse gear if going backwards also)

 

Go buy another battery. For under a $100 bucks, it would be cheap insurance. It sounds like your battery is ready to have a complete failure. It probably has a bad plate and may not properly hold a charge. That is, if your alternator is in good condition. Most places will check your charging system for free if you buy a battery. I suspect it is the battery and is in need of replacement. If your starter is clicking rapidly, you do not have sufficient amperage to engage the solenoid and spin the starter.
:cheers:

 

ok, thanks. I guess I check it with a voltmeter first, and if it is low, I'll go have it changed, and ask them to check on the alternator as well. How much should a new battery cost? What kind should I get?

 

I tried jumping the car - it didn't work. The haynes manual says to attach one end of the black cable to the negative terminal on the booster battery and the other end to a good ground on the engine block. Whats a good ground on the engine block that I should attach it to?

 

You can attach it to any metal on the engine and it should be a good ground. You can also attach it to the negative terminal of the battery in the car if you can reach it. So, black cable - neg terminal on booster battery to neg on your battery or metal somewhere on engine block. Red cable - positive terminal on booster to positive terminal on your battery. If the booster is in another vehicle, start that vehicle. Then you get the advantage of the 14 or so volt output from the booster alternator which will help your car start.
Quick check on whether it is alternator or battery. If you have a fully charged battery, you can shine the lights on your garage door or ? with the car running. Turn the car off, and see if the lights dim. If they dim, the alternator is fine, if they don't dim, the alternator is suspect. Reason for this is when the lights are being powered by the alternator, they will shine brighter due to the 14+ volt output of the alternator. When they are powered by battery alone, no alternator, they will appear dimmer because of the 12v battery power.
Good luck.

 

New battery = $50-$120 depending on quality. Just don't buy it from a gas station, they'll charge you $120 and give you a poopiety brand. Just go to Pep boys and get a Die Hard.

As for a ground on the engine block, any solid piece of metal like the heads, block itself, starter, etc.. it's all one big electrical connection. If you want to be **** attach it to the starter if you can reach it.

 

ok, THANK you all.

 

I tried to jump it - nothing is happening. I think the battery is completely dead, no lights come on, the power locks won't even lock. Should I buy a battery and try to install it? I think I will try to push start it and then drive it to Sears to get a new battery.

 

If your alternator is bad(and these vettes eat alternators regularly), and you get the car started, pull off the negative cable off the battery post(because it's the easiest one to get to). If the car stays on, alt is good. If car dies, alt is bad and battery is fully discharged.(assuming other things are ok).

 

FYI - Not sure if this is just a newer type car thing, but my 99 Tahoe died in the middle of the road a few months back. It had a loose battery cable. When I say it died, it died (lights and everything). I thought for sure I had a bad computer or something. After tightening the cable on the battery it fired right up, and everything was fine. Thought that might be worth mentioning.

 

Hm....but all the electrical stuff didn't just die - it was quite gradual. I noticed the dash dimming a couple days ago and didn't think much of it (stupid me). Then, after I had accidently left both doors open for about an hour, the dash would light up and I would hear clicks - but the engine would not rotate. The next morning, the dash was very dim, and the engine still would not rotate. A couple hours later, the dash doesn't light up at all, and I don't even get a clicking sound - nothing! Jump starting the car isn't doing anything either. I need some suggestions as to what to do. My last hope, at this point, is to push start the car and get it to Sears or something to get a new battery in. Hopefully that will be the end of it.

 

I have been watching this post very closely. I happen to have a large fleet of(over 200) vehicles that I tend to. Most of these vehicles are obtained in auctions and salvage sales. They are rebuilt and sold according to market trends. Many of these vehicles are stored and often not started for months and sometimes a year or more. Often, the batteries drain down and require jump starting. So, I have a good knowledge of starting systems, in my opinion. I think that jumping at least 3 to4 vehicles daily has earned me enough stripes to chime in on this one.

First, merely jumping a vehicle with jumper(booster) cables does not necessarily mean that you have ample amperage at the starter to determine a starter problem. Most jumper cables are constructed of a very small cable that does not allow a high enough level of electricity flow to instantly start a disabled vehicle. This is why, most dead battery jump starts require the running vehicle to stay hooked to the disabled vehicle for a period of time before attempting to start it. This charges the battery of the disabled vehicle. Electricity has to flow from one battery to another. Electricity also flows thru the path of least resistance. So if your cables are not large enough to provide ample direct flow to the starter, you will not be able to get it to start. If you charge the disabled vehicle's battery this way and it still does not provide ample power to turn the starter over, your battery is most likely defective since it must not be able to hold a proper charge. Amperage is what starts the car and not voltage. Merely getting 12 volts from a battery does not mean that it is good or even fully charged. To test a battery, it must be load tested. Load testing is done with a device that measures the amount of amperage that is available. This is why you see different batteries rated in CCA( cold cranking amps). CCA is a rating based on the available amperage when the battery plates are at a specific temperature. Going back to the battery, the plates in the battery discharge electricity and recharge all the time. In a sense, the plates eventually weaken. Contamination of the electrolyte accelerates that deterioration. Even factors such as vibration and temperature changes affect the performance of the plates and can help to accelerate plate deterioration.
All batteries are not the same. Some use other types of plate designs and materials. I have grown a liking to the Delco brand batteries. If you have followed the technological advancements of batterry design. You will see that they have refined the old style design. There are many radical designs out there. Many of which are unproven and their manufacturing process is still crude in a technological sense. This inconsistent manufacturing process has led to many failures because of poor quality control. Patent protection has also led to a particular brand being superior for a period of time. So selecting batteries can sometimes be like comparing apples and oranges. GM has designed their particular automotive electrical systems to be highly compatible to their particular brand of batterries, Delco. So in my opinion, I would tend to select that brand of battery before considering another for a GM vehicle. We buy a pallet of batteries quite often and have found over the years that our failure rate with Delco batteries is considerably less than with other brands.

Going back to your problem, you state that your battery deteriorated over a short period of time, a day or two. Vehicle electrical systems tend to constantly drain batteries because some systems such as the clock, security system, computer memory, radio memory systems require power to keep them going. Every time that you open a door, you drain some electricity from the battery. Each time you unsuccessfully try to start the car, the battery is drained of electricity to a certain amount. So naturally the battery will discharge since the engine has not run to allow the alternator to recharge the battery.

As for the cause of your problems, it cannot be accurately determined without properly inspecting and testing the vehicle. I could guess at it. But chances are, it may not be correct. So why did I say to replace the battery in a previous post? A battery costs around a hundred dollars retail. A starter costs around $200 depending if you buy new or rebuilt and also the source of purchase.
The alternator runs also in the $150-200 range. What is the easiest to replace? The battery of course! What would be most likely to get your vehicle started? Your battery of course! That is why I advised to change the battery. Then I reccommended to take the vehicle down to the place of battery purchase for testing of the alternator and starter. Many outlets that sell batteries will test your alternator and diagnose your starter for free if you buy a battery from them.

Obviously, your vehicle needs to have the system inspected and tested periodically. This is a portion of preventative maintenance that obviously was overlooked at some point of time. Even starters and alternators are normally replaced every 50,000 miles on emergency vehicles that must be 100% reliable. Batteries are replaced yearly or every 25,000 miles,whichever occurs first. Simple things such as battery terminals are inspected and cleaned monthly. Where I live, in the tropics where corrosion is a major factor, we stringently do preventative maintenance. Some of the emergency power generators that we maintain have to be 100% reliable and are replaced periodically whether there is any wear or not.

Also, as for starting a disabled vehicle while the boosting vehicle is running, I highly discourage it. Power generating systems don't like clashing with each other. Vehicle alternator systems are not designed to work simultaneously with another. Many times, from experience, the voltage regulator in an alternator will burn if you jump start with the other vehicle running. If you do this, you may not only replace the battery (original problem) but also the alternator (it houses the voltage regulator). I have sometimes seen the voltage regulators of both vehicles being damaged. This is an easy $300-500 mistake.

I hope that this long post enlightens you on the complexity of analyzing your problem. The fix may be simple. But without actually being there with the proper tools, us arm chair mechanics more than likely will not be able to properly hit it right on the head the first time.

Good luck!

:cheers: :seeya :seeya :seeya

 

wow. thanks. I did indeed try to start the drained battery while running the boosting car - and there was a bit of smoke (I hope it wasnt the voltage regulator, but it probably was).

I checked the previous owner's receipts and the battery (Delco) is about 7 years old, and the alternator has been replaced at least once. So I am pretty sure its time for a new battery.

The question is, what should I do now? I need to get it to a shop, have them replace the battery and inspect the system while they're at it. How should I get the car there? Is there no way to get the car to start short of push starting it? I am thinking of trying to jump it again, this time leaving the boosting battery cable to mine for an extended period of time. Then I should turn off the boosting car before trying to start mine?

thanks,
marthpodi

 

If at all possible, and if you are capable, change the battery. Buy one specifically designed to meet or exceed the requirements of your car. Your battery dealer should be able to help you with that. If you can do that, you can drive it down to someplace, hopefully the same place that sold you the battery, to have the starting and charging systems checked.

Do you have auto club services available? AAA and some others provide free jump starting. These guys, normally free with your membership, will either jump start or tow your car down to a shop for battery replacement and diagnosis. If anyone can sucessfully jump start a car, these guys can since they probably do it daily. It is in their line of expertise. I hope that you don't need to replace the alternator.

Good luck!

:seeya

I forgot to add that I do not advise push starting since your battery may not have enough voltage or amperage to properly run the fuel pump and ignition system. If these don't run, your car most likely will not start with the push starting. The potential damage that may be caused by push starting may not be worth the effort. Also, remember, your braking and steering systems will be affected by the non running engine. Push starting only works in standard transmission cars. It must be attempted in second or third gear at a speed of no less than ten or fifteen miles an hour. Be careful if you try this.


[Modified by Sharky Guam, 1:32 PM 7/28/2002]

 

Nope never needed AAA till I bought the vette (toyotas never break!) - I'm working on getting it.

 

Don't have it done at the dealer either. My wife's car was at the dealer and I said, "Sure, go ahead and replace it."

$89.95 for the battery, $75.00 to install!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is for the Pontiac Quad four so we're not talking massive battery power.

======================
Push starting: Another plus for us 6 speed guys. :D

 

how hard is a battery to self-install, anyhow?