Completely baffled

KEENGUITAR

MEMBER
CHEVROLET LUMINA

HELP!

1999 Chevy Lumina, 135,000 miles. In December, I went out to start it and the car was completely dead. No lights, no clicking no buzzer. No problems before then.

I jump start it, take it in have them check the battery and alternator, which had been replaced less then a year before. No problems there. They jiggle a few wires and suddenly it's fixed and I haven't had a problem since then. The car, in fact, set for a week in extemely cold temepratures while I was on a business trip and started up immediately when I came home

Until last night. Ran fine no signs of trouble but this morning it's completely dead again. Nothing works from headlights to door locks. Successfully jumped it and got it home but as soon as I turned it off, it was dead again.

Cables are tight with no obvious signs of wear or corrsion. Beyond that, there's a lot of wires that I have no clue what they are. I jiggled them (the archair mechanic technique) but nothing

I welcome any advice at all.I don't think it's the starter or the battery or alternator. Is there a short somewhere, a loose wire?

1 Reply

JDL

MECHANIC
16,098 POSTS

Sorry for the late reply.

You shouldn't let the alternator charge up a dead battery, that hard on the alternator. I'd have to make sure battery has a full charge and the charging system is working properly.

Next, I have to check for too much battery drain, everything off. I haven't looked up the exact spec, usually around 30--50 ma, that is.030--, 050 milliamps, not even a tenth of an amp. If the drain is too much, you pull/replace fuses one at a time, when you pull the fuse on the faulty circuit, the drain returns to normal. Then you check everything on that circuit. Sometimes a faulty alternator will let battery drain back through alternator.

Check for any lites left on, interior--under the hood, everywhere. Best time to check is in the dark.