Success!! Woot!!!
Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:31 pmAs some of you might remember, I've been having an intermitant problem of the car not starting from time to time. The main symptom was the fuel pump not priming.
Fast forward to today. I've spent the past 2 hours trying to figure out why the car wouldnt start. The car was totally dead......no fuel pump priming, no cranking over, no relays clicking anywhere, just totally dead.
Immediately I go for the battery, even though its not that old. Grab the multimeter and tested......12.8 volts. Move on down the line to the starter.....12.8 volts. Dammit, no problems there.........or was there??
Decided I'd check to see if there's any corrosion at the battery terminals.....didnt find any. So I cleaned off the ternimals anyway, and put the wires back on. Fire up the car and still......nothing.
I grab the multimeter again and check the battery, 12.8 volts. This time I left the mulitmeter test prongs connected to the battery and tried to crank it over........POW, turns over no problem. WTF???
Take the prongs off the battery, no start. Okay, this is starting to drive me crazy!!! Same thing over and over again, with the prongs connected it starts, with them off its dead.
I take off the wires from the battery terminals again to see WTF is going on. Finally found the stupidest of all things. The inside of the rings that go around the battery terminals was filthy, it was so coated with black crap that the copper (that the ring is made of) wasnt making a good contact with the terminals.
I grabbed my dremel drill and put on a sanding wheel, and proceded to grind out the inside of the rings until it was pure copper again. Reconnected everything and presto......car fires up without problem.
Just goes to show how important good connections are. With how old our cars are, I highly recommend checking out the condition of your cars connections, ya never know what you'll find.
Fast forward to today. I've spent the past 2 hours trying to figure out why the car wouldnt start. The car was totally dead......no fuel pump priming, no cranking over, no relays clicking anywhere, just totally dead.
Immediately I go for the battery, even though its not that old. Grab the multimeter and tested......12.8 volts. Move on down the line to the starter.....12.8 volts. Dammit, no problems there.........or was there??
Decided I'd check to see if there's any corrosion at the battery terminals.....didnt find any. So I cleaned off the ternimals anyway, and put the wires back on. Fire up the car and still......nothing.
I grab the multimeter again and check the battery, 12.8 volts. This time I left the mulitmeter test prongs connected to the battery and tried to crank it over........POW, turns over no problem. WTF???
Take the prongs off the battery, no start. Okay, this is starting to drive me crazy!!!
Same thing over and over again, with the prongs connected it starts, with them off its dead.
I take off the wires from the battery terminals again to see WTF is going on. Finally found the stupidest of all things. The inside of the rings that go around the battery terminals was filthy, it was so coated with black crap that the copper (that the ring is made of) wasnt making a good contact with the terminals.
I grabbed my dremel drill and put on a sanding wheel, and proceded to grind out the inside of the rings until it was pure copper again. Reconnected everything and presto......car fires up without problem.
Just goes to show how important good connections are. With how old our cars are, I highly recommend checking out the condition of your cars connections, ya never know what you'll find.
