car died?? battery? any ideas

joshluvsla

joshluvsla

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Well i lent my girfriend my car today since i drove my motorcycle to work. She parked it outside it was a preatty warm day...about 85 degrees. she drove it for lunch and no problem. once she got out of work at 5:30 the car wouldnt start... she called and told me i cant start it... i thought maybe she didnt know how to use the remote start so i took her thru the steps. but to no avail the car wouldnt start. she called AAA and i drove over there. I had to remove my subs, amp and capacitor to get to the battery :mad: anyways the tow truck guy gave it a jump and it started. i let it run for 3 mins then turned it off and it wouldnt start again, so he jumped it again. i drove the car home parked it and started it over and over again and no problems? weird... so i took out the battery and took it to auto zone and they tested it... i saw the voltage it was like 12.54 and it tested good. i put it back on and no problems.... what do u guys think happenend she swears that she didnt leave anything on...the battery is a motorcraft and is about 1yr old....help me out here..... this car stresses me out! but i still love it
 
Maybe it was just a bad connection. I have had that happen before. Sometimes you just have to take the clamps off and clean them. (Baking soda works great) :) The tow truck guy would have clamped onto the battery clamps. So thats why he was able to start it........... Maybe
 
Sounds like the battery was a little bit low (charge-wise), but the LS's charging system is still working, because the drive home charged it. The LS's factory electronics are fairly intelligent, and will turn themselves off after a certain amount of time to save the battery, so I'd start looking at your aftermarket equipment (amps, etc) to make sure they're shutting down after you turn off the ignition.

You're driving a 1st gen LS, so the car's electrical system is on the ragged edge of what the alternator can provide (that's why it has a hydraulic cooling fan). It's possible that your system is pushing the electrical system far enough towards that ragged edge that a minor drain can leave you without enough juice to start the car.

It's also possible that you have a bad/slightly loose ground connection. Start at the battery, but don't stop there.
 
well maybe she didnt wait for the steering wheel to come out all the way??? when ever i turn the key before the wheel is out the car wont turn on and my alarm turns on... its wierd but it looks liek i might be only one with that problem..:(
 
2002_LS_V8 said:
well maybe she didnt wait for the steering wheel to come out all the way??? when ever i turn the key before the wheel is out the car wont turn on and my alarm turns on... its wierd but it looks liek i might be only one with that problem..:(
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That's weird. Sometimes I wait for the wheel to extend and sometimes I don't, but it never has any effect on starting. It sounds like your battery might possibly be on the low side, too.

I don't know about the PATS system, but most aftermarket alarms will sound if you try to disconnect the battery. I had this problem on my T-Bird SC when its battery died; while I was waiting for my dad to arrive with tools, I tried to restart the car a few times. The charge would build up between attempts, but not enough to do anything, so hitting the starter would kill all power, which made the alarm think the battery had been disconnected, which would cause its horn to start shrieking... (Yeah, I know there was no point to attempting to restart, but it's not like I had anything else to do at the time.)

And the ambient temp does have an effect. It seems like every time I lose a battery, it happens on the hottest day of the year, in the middle of the day, in a place where there's no shade.... :mad:
 
Here are a couple of threads from my and LikeNew02's problems with our cars not starting. His was fixed by a new battery and mine was a little more involved. It turned out to be a loose wire in the front passenger wheel well. It acted fine once started but it wouldn't start with out a jump and my battery was charged. Real frustraiting and confusing. It never died on me though. Good luck and I hope you find the problem, it took me 5 months until the problem was found.

http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/showthread.php?t=21622
http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/showthread.php?t=20242
 
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