I was out with the Vette yesterday. When I returned to the car, I used the remote to open the hatch, threw some stuff in, closed it and hopped into the car (auto door locks opened fine). As I turned the ignition, heard kind of a clunk then nothing. Tried to operate blinkers and got a wierd hum/buzz near the blinker switch but no blinkers. Nothing else worked. Interestingly, a "tapping" noise seemed to be coming from the fan shroud area (99% sure NOT the starter) which would not stop even when I pulled the key (I believe, but cannot confirm, that I had tried to turn on the headlights which might be related to the area the tapping came from). Also, when I tried to pop the hatch it seemed as if the solenoid would cycle for about a minute then shut down but the hatch would not open.

Then tried to jump from my wife's V6 Accord -- good news was when I hooked up the cables the tapping stopped. Engine turned over maybe once and then stopped. Some electric components began working but headlights still would not go up (tapping did not resume). AAA arrived and with their V8 truck and heavy duty cables we got the car started. I checked components. Pretty much everything worked but two odd things: Headlights cycled once then would not work again, and the HUD did not cycle thru every possible setting. I ran the engine about 15 minutes and drove another 20 minutes, eventually stopping at my mechanic's. During the ride the volt gauge was stable at about 14 or so, but the DIC volt readings fluctuated between 11 and 14.5.

Anyway, when I stopped the car and tried to restart it, it was stone dead, but at least the "tapping" did not restart. I left the car at the mechanic's (who on Monday replaced the AC condenser) -- I expect him to check it out first thing tomorrow. I did not have the opportunity to read codes.

Any thoughts on this electric gremlin? I hope just the battery (it is at minimum 5 years old), but I wonder about alternator, ground wire issues, or other even more devious bugs given that the headlights will not raise or lower.

ADDENDUM -- car at mechanic today. Battery is useless and he recommends new alternator as well (car does have 103K miles on it).

Any other suggestions I should pass along to him?

Thanks in advance for your help...

 

And have him check very carefully the battery cable where it connects to the starter solenoid. Those symptoms are indicative of a bad connection and I've seen several times when the voltage reading fluctuates as you stated and that starter connection was loose or corroded. I also would have to have proof that the alternator was bad before I replaced it, that connection makes the alternator seem bad because of the variation in voltage when in fact it isn't.

 

Too late -- I had accidentally posted this in C6 so by the time I switched it the work was done. I do trust this guy and, while he is a "generalist" he has a lot of Vette experience and a good reputation. I also specifically asked him to check all grounds/connections first, but I did not examine the alternator.

Where is the starter solenoid? What I can say from Sunday is that all battery connections I could find were VERY tight and clean -- but, if the one to which you refer is not visible then I guess I'll always be a tiny bit suspicious...but all things considered worst case is I'm out about $300 extra -- not the worst thing ever...