pj2k3

Today I was at the gas station and have never had a single problem with the car dying on me. As I attempted to the turn the ignition to leave the gas station, I got nothing. The car just would not turn over. The dash and everything was lit up and on. There were no warning signs at all, no battery light, nothing. The guy filling up in front of me was courteous enough to give me a jump so I could drive the 5 miles back to my house. When I got there, I let the car sit for a while, tried it and it started right up. I did this maybe 5-6 times today...just walked outside and started her right up. I have NO idea what happened and I'm scared that it's going to happen again in a worse spot. Has anyone experienced anything like this? I don't think it's the alternator or the battery light would have come on, wouldn't it have? Doesn't that happen when the battery is dead? Besides, everything INSIDE the car worked?! Odd.

mark

how old is the battery if the battery is farlly new then check the battery terminals on the battery if is carotid clean them if that dont work i dont know.

carpenterbill

sounds like a weak spot in the starter. the only time you will get this to happen is if the starter stops on the bad spot. Sounds like the extra voltage from the jump was enough to kick it over that spot, as battery voltage is about 12.6v and a running car has about 14.2v

sunshinemalibu03

I have a 2003 Chevrolet Malibu also. Mine recently did the same thing. And it continued on and became worse. It would need a jump once a week and then it started doing this really strange thing. When I was backing out of some where, shifting from park to neutral and in the middle of being shifted from neutral to reverse all of the lights would dim. It would act like it was going to die, like the battery was drained. But as soon as it got in reverse it was fine. So I had a friend look at it, and he said the alt was beginning to fail. Well another person investigated it and and this is what the ROOT CAUSE was, please read his text message:

sunshinemalibu03

Sorry here is the text message:

You have a dying cell in your battery, when it is in gear it minimizes the pull on the battery and maintains a useable charge but as soon as it shifts to nuetral it drops rpms and the alternator puts out less which means it pulls more from the battery which is not holding enough of a charge.Go to Advanced, or AutoZone and have the battery for free. It is not the alternator, please have battery checked or replaced.