Hey everyone, recently my car has been having issue starting up. My car is 11 yrs old with 83k miles. within the last 3-5 yrs its only been driven like 2k miles a year and recently, its just been garaged. I bought a trickle charger to keep the battery charge. The other week, I attempted to start the car and it wouldn't even crack up at all. The headlights, horns and the dashboard light did not have power to it as well. I attempted to jump start it and car turned on. Turned it off for a few mins and and then turned it on again and no problem. I didn't think it was a big deal so i shut off the car and 3 days later, it happened again. Took the battery to Autozone and batter is 90%. Today i borrowed a buddies electrical meter to check the voltage while the car is running but when i tried to jump start the car again today, this time, it wouldn't turn on at all. The dashboard worked while the key was in the ignition but as soon as pressed the start button, there was no crank and the dashboard lights turned off. I never experienced a bad alternator but are these symptoms of a bad alternator?

Wanted to get your thoughts before i go ahead and try to replace it.The replacement process looks pretty straight forward but wanted to see if I am missing anything else to check before i do replace it. I checked all the fuses and they look good.

Thanks in advance.

 

Symptoms of a bad battery or connection.

 

Battery checked and voltage is good and so is the charge. Any suggestion on where to check for bad connection

 

Headlights on, key on, push start button....

What do the headlights do?

 

I'd start at the battery terminals .........

 

no light at headlight, horn off, nothing at the dashboard.

 

Terminals recently replaced id say 200 miles ago back in january

 

Lets say if i dont touch the car for 2-3 days, the light will turn on and all electrical components work. Once i put in the key and press the start button, all electical components stop working and wont even crank up

 

Batteries can be fickle and deliver some perplexing issues while appearing okay itself.

Replacing batteries is the first thing I do and it has solved almost every issue I have from autos to alternate generators. It is possible for the plates to migrate chemically to each other and short itself out.

 

Bad battery or bad connection, plain and simple. Has the battery been load tested?