mgorman87

I have a 2001 Impala and recently (last week) the car has been giving me problems starting it. When i get up for work and try and start my car, it tries to turn over and cant. it looked to me like the battery was drained. the horn wasnt loud and showed all signs of a dead battery. nothing was left on. i jumped the car and it started up. it would be ok the whole day. then the next morning the same thing. this is also a new battery. so today i went to murrays and had them check the battery. the battery and alternator was fine. i thought maybe it was corrosion so i got stuff to clean it and cleaned and greased the terminals. when i got the battery hooked back up the car wouldnt start. i hooked the jumper cables up and the car still wouldnt start. the starter would click and the gauges would go up and come back down. the horn also had the really weak sound like the battery was dead. but when the cables were hooked up it was loud like normal but the car wouldnt start. so that lead me to believe that its something besides the battery/alternator thats causing the issue. finally after trying and trying the car started to turn over and eventually after cranking the car for like 5sec it started. would a bad starter drain the battery like that? what do you guys think is wrong? Thanks

bobK

Hope you find out what it is. I have a 2000 Tahoe doing basicly the same thing. This is the 2nd battery in just a couple of months. I notice that when it does start the clock has lost its time. You can reset it shut the truck off for 20 minutes or so and come back and start it and the clock is off. I have had the battery and alternator checkedAGAIN and all is fine.Tonight I am checking all of the electrical and fuseswith an inductive volt meter to see if something is draining the battery. So far nothing.
Hope you get an answer.
blk

mgorman87

I solved the problem. To make the story short, the battery was sh*t and wasn't pulling a charge from the alternator. so when i would jump the car to start it, it would start but when you turned it off and tried starting it again it wouldn't start. the battery was only 1yr 3months old so i went back to the dealer and had them replace it.

therewolf

Old battery cables will eat your starter, alternater, and battery. A lot of mechanics don't change them on purpose because they know you'll be back.