Hi guys!

My name is Bryon and I'm a GM addict. Tonight I just bought a 1998 Chevrolet Lumina to add to my collection. The lady was frustrated with the issues it was giving her , so she sold it to me for $750.

She says she thinks the alternator and/or battery needs replaced: Says battery doesn't hold a charge. If it's warm outside it'll hold a charge, if it's cold it won't.

Since I just bought it tonight and I have no gizmo's to test alternator , before I do so , I'd like to hear some theories on what you guys think.

I'm thinking it could be an old battery with a dead cell (quite plausible) , an old battery that just can't hold it's own anymore and lastly it is a reman alternator roughly 1yr old - so it could be that too.

Anyways , car has 117k miles excellent condition otherwise.

 

Welcome to the forum

 

Thanks in2pro.

Update on newly aquired Lumina - It was somewhat decent enough to jump the battery. Took a few minutes to charge enough to start up. Once running it stayed running until I turned the engine off after driving about 5-7 city blocks. Waited ~10 minutes after shutting it off to try and restart the vehicle again. No go, battery was almost fully drained by the time I went back out and opened the door (interior roof light was dim already).

So I'm thinking bad battery , any thoughts? Living on retired disabled veterans income so I don't have the funds to buy a battery and alternator. I'm trying to get good odds on which item should fix the issue.

 

Its most likely the battery, if it ran while started the the alternator is putting out enough to keep it running...
You can have the battery tested and it may just need a good over night charge, but if the voltage has dropped too low for too long the battery may not recover even with a charge... most auto parts places will check it for free...

 

I should know for sure later today. I got a buddy of mine that's got a 3 month old napa legend side-post battery in his 95 astro he's going to pull and try in the lumina.

We plan on letting it run 15-20 minutes with heat on full , headlights , flashers and the radio on , then without turning headlamps off , turn off the ignition and wait about 2 minutes and try to restart the car.

I was going to try taking the Negative Cable off ealier while we had the lumina going , but I decided the risk wasn't worth frying anything lol.

 

it sound s like the battery is bad i went through the same thing took it too advance auto to charge battery it was no good under warranty we got it replaced all is good