DD won't start. Any clues? (maybe electrical short)
 

So I was driving yesterday in my altima and it quit out on. me as I approached a stop light.

Completely lost power. I did have to jump it that morning which I thought was odd, but I had assumed that I left the lights on or door ajar or something because I was fooling with the a/c the night before.

My first thought was the alternator stpoped charging, but I thought it was odd that I didn't see a battery light.

I couldn't figure out anything on the side of the road and got it towed. Only while I waited for him, I noticed that since my hazard button was pushed (useless, had no lights/power) I could hear a faint noise. Up under the dash instead of a normal solenoid clicking noise for the hazards, I was hear what sounded like weird electrical/solneoid noise. It was very faint.

So the two driver gets there, puts a jump box on it, and it starts right up, he drives it onto the flat bed and I tow it to my parents house which was near by.

I took his charger/jumper out to the car to drive it into the garage to maybe start to pull the alternator, when I was faced with the odded stuff.

When the charger was on the battery I regained all my lights/beeps that you'd expect when you open the door and put the key into the ignition switch. However, when I cranked the car, it start making awful solenoid cylcing noises, like 100 solenoids clicking very rapidly at once, and my tach gauge goes to 2500RPM. The starter doesn't move, it's jus tlike I'm flowing voltage to places it should when I turn the key.

Anyways, check out this video:

I first crank. Then I push the hazards lights where you can hear more solenoid music. Then I noticed that when I turn my headlights on I completely lose power to the car again. Then I toggle the turn signals and you can hear them rapidly cycling.



When I take the charger off the battery, I lose power, but the battery shows 12.6v and charger displays it's fully charged.

What are you're thoughts? This car was only supossed to last me a few more months...

Sounds very similar to some weird crap my miata did a few years ago. Turned out to be the battery. If you've got a battery you can swap in it might be worth trying.

Hotwire the starter solenoid. If the starter cranks then its the solenoid.

Id also check the cable running down to the the starter, maybe its corroded?

I gotta agree with Pdexta though. You may have the voltage but you may not have the current and that may be why its failing too.

we might have a spare one floating around to try. It's an advance auto special dated 9/10. probably have it checked out today at least.

If all the grounds are in place, then the battery, it is dead and stuff.

I told you already, replace the battery.

thanks bros. this had me a little stumped, as the battery tests fully charged and it's not behvaing like I've ever seens (this is probably the 4th battery on this car)

i just need this car to stay running through winter; wasn't happy at the idea of replacing the wiring harness or something crazy like that. Or driving the miata in the middle of Aug without a/c

Sometimes car batteries develop a high internal resistance; when not under load and tested with a DMM, they show a nice, healthy voltage. When however, you request current, the internal resistance steps up and very little current flows. The result is exactly what you've shown in your video.

I've had the 100 solenoid sound when trying to crank before, and it was because of a dead battery. I imagine it's caused by the starter solenoid cycling a whole bunch as it gets some juice from the battery but not enough, some jazz like that.

Anyway, I vote for battery.

battery is enroute to Advanced Auto.

they tested the battery and they seem to think it's in perfect operating order.

u people need to help your admin.

bro don't you know everything?

no, i havent found the answer on google yet to copy and paste here to pretend to be all knowing.

Considering the circumstances did you try a battery from a known good car?

I've got a battery that charges and reads fine but won't start a car (1 try maybe on a small engine). It is, however, a good 12v source for appliances like air compressors though.

Are you sure the alternator is ok ie start the car on a charger/ starter (if you have one) then remove. I'm not sure from your story if the tow guys charge pack was left on the car while driven onto the flat bed or not. The car should stay running with a dead battery if the alternator is good.

lol bro

DMM on battery while cranking.

If it drops below 9.6, the computer gets confused, and doesn't work properly.
The problem will be your battery.

If it doesn't drop, you have another problem.

Report back.

Not if the battery has an internal short.

I have had this on two different vehicles. One of them was the battery and the other was the terminal on both the battery and at the starter needed to be cleaned.

In my Jeep the battery just quite on me and at low speeds drew so much from the system that it would stall if I didn't keep it above 1500rpm. As long as it had a load it was fine. I ended up completely disconnecting the battery and getting a jump to drive up to get another. That battery was only 8 months old. They tried to say my battery was fine, so I brought it back out there and it did that crap, but with a new battery it would.

yeah, he put a jump box on it, started right up, drove onto bed, turned it off.

got to my parents house maybe 20 minutes later. I hook my charger/jumper on it, set it to start (50A), and try it and I get all that crazy ---- you see in the video.

I let it "charge" for about 2 hours and tried again to no avail.