4 cyl Front Wheel Drive Automatic 135000 miles
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Car was driven almost every day by my mom and then was given to us and parked. It was started a couple of times during the cold weather to keep the battery fresh. After about three weeks went by one day it would not start and only clicked; I was thinking the battery. I replaced the battery with a new one and drove it around and everything seemed fine and then parked it again for two weeks. Then I started it (it was a hard start), ran for a couple of minutes and then sputtered, I gave it gas and it died. It would only then click and would not start again (sometimes it would click once, sometimes several clicks). At this point I am thinking alternator; it checked fine and Auto Zone. Now I am thinking starter; it tested good two out of three times at Auto Zone. I explained the problem to Auto Zone and they still recommended an alternator due to the sound of things. The new alternator has not fixed the problem. We are encountering a fluctuation of electric issues. The car has no juice, you turn the key to accessory and the radio and windshield wiper will work, but you turn the lights on and everything will go dead, but then you wiggle the light switch sometimes the juice will return to the car, but during all of this if you try to start it, it will click once sometimes not at all. The car had a remote start installed by Ziebart prior to me; one thought was that the starter was draining the battery. The battery was only tested recently to see if it had a charge and it wasn't that low; I had previously just put it on the charger without testing assuming it was dead. I am a backyard mechanic at best and am completely baffled. Can you help?
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Car was driven almost every day by my mom and then was given to us and parked. It was started a couple of times during the cold weather to keep the battery fresh. After about three weeks went by one day it would not start and only clicked; I was thinking the battery. I replaced the battery with a new one and drove it around and everything seemed fine and then parked it again for two weeks. Then I started it (it was a hard start), ran for a couple of minutes and then sputtered, I gave it gas and it died. It would only then click and would not start again (sometimes it would click once, sometimes several clicks). At this point I am thinking alternator; it checked fine and Auto Zone. Now I am thinking starter; it tested good two out of three times at Auto Zone. I explained the problem to Auto Zone and they still recommended an alternator due to the sound of things. The new alternator has not fixed the problem. We are encountering a fluctuation of electric issues. The car has no juice, you turn the key to accessory and the radio and windshield wiper will work, but you turn the lights on and everything will go dead, but then you wiggle the light switch sometimes the juice will return to the car, but during all of this if you try to start it, it will click once sometimes not at all. The car had a remote start installed by Ziebart prior to me; one thought was that the starter was draining the battery. The battery was only tested recently to see if it had a charge and it wasn't that low; I had previously just put it on the charger without testing assuming it was dead. I am a backyard mechanic at best and am completely baffled. Can you help?
Apr 21, 2008 at 7:16 PM