s2kai

if you hear the starter clicking, its trying to engage. A bad alternator will deplete a batteries life and it will test bad, regardless how new. In my experience working on vehicles, it takes about 8 hours to fully charge a dead battery. Most of the times when a battery is ran dry, its toast. Have a load test done on the alternator to make sure it is working. Most of the time the brushings wear out, but its easier to buy a new or rebuilt alt. instead of rebuilding it yourself. Hope this helps.

Wahooz

The starter is definitely clicking, accompanied by a dimming of the headlights. As far as the alternator, I took it Advance Auto and they did a load test and it was running 14-15V and they said it was good. I then took it to Autozone and they checked the diode, regulator, and something else (I forget). All 3 checks passed as well.

As far as my dead Kinetik, are you saying that I can still charge it? I asked Autozone to charge it for me and they tried but when I got it back, it was still dead. Should I try a trickle charger? The battery is like an Optima in that it is a sealed gel cell battery. So I don't know if it was run dry?

RISLAR

It sounds like you have a bad earth wire prob from the engine to the body, you are getting battery drain, so you must have a bad earth!!

PatS4P

Don't disconnect the battery while the engine is running you can damage the alternator !!! Buy a cheap multimeter from HD, less than $10.00, set it to read DC voltage, turn on every electrical item (headlights, AC, fan to max, signals, radio, wipers, anything else?) read voltage at battery you should have around 13.5 - 14V
if under that problem with charging system.

Wahooz

I picked up a new Optima Red Top (Group 34/78) which supposedly is for optimizing starting, and the car will not crank. The battery is fully charged, but when I try to start the car, it makes a steady mechanical sound kinda like the fuel pump priming but much louder. It does not simply click and does not turn over. It feels as though the starter motor itself is seized and cannot move the flywheel. I only tried a few seconds (to start) and both the positive and negative battery cables got pretty warm so I stopped. I'm thinking that the starter is somehow seized? I was planning on push starting it tonight, but not sure if this will damage the car assuming I have a seized starter. ..Any insight?

Burgman

You can push start the car even with a bad starter. It sounds like you have a bad starter or the cables are loose on the starter. I would keep the battery cable disconnected in case the starter is shorted and causing a battery drain. You would know if it was because there would be a heavy spark when you disconnected the battery cable.

Wahooz

ah crap...well, I tried push starting the car and the engine is seized...it won't budge. rolling downhill and popping the clutch resulted in some long skid marks b/c the wheels did not budge, nor did the engine turn over. It actually did this exact same thing the first time it stalled (a couple months ago). My mechanic took a breaker bar to the crank pulley and managed to move it a few millimeters. That was enough to "unstick" it and we were able to jump start the engine. I'll try this tomorrow, but this can't be good. The engine should not seize should it?? It's got perfect oil level and as mentioned in my first post, the car just stalled when I pulled into the garage. Since that time, the starter began to turn the engine over and then the battery went dead. Now that I've got a new battery, the engine is frozen Please help!

teanza

n e word on ur issue?

~tina~

Wahooz

Well, I ended up buying a new starter even though the starter tested good at both autozone and advanced auto. I installed it this weekend and the car seems to be running great....although, I'm still a little gunshy about taking it for too long as I don't want to be stranded on the highway like before. While the car is running, I've got 14.5V at the battery...with lights, A/C, radio on, I'm reading 14.3V, although once the fans kick on, it drops to 12.96 for a split second, then back up to 14+V. I think problem may be solved! Thanks for all your suggestions!

teanza

weird, but it worked so don't question it and let it ride!

~tina~