Starting Issues - Slow Crank Sound and Electrical Reset??

M

mitch944

LVC Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2012
Messages
10
Reaction score
0
Location
Omaha, NE
Hey,
I tried searching but none of the threads matched the issues my car is having.

Heres the story: I have a 2005 LS V6 I went to start my car on lunch break and it didnt start. Didnt turnover but all lights/radio/etc worked fine but no sound at all when I turn the key. I left it in my work parking lot for a day while I figured out what to do with it. I come back to work this morning and tried to start it again and it slowly cranked over a few times then stopped and then apparently the battery reset itself, all the gauges went crazy and my radio presets were gone. I know its not the battery as A jump didnt fix it and the tester shows it has sufficient charge.

I'm thinking it is the starter solenoid but I wanted to see what everyone thought first. The actual starter was replaced about 3-4 months ago. If it makes a difference in the diagnosis I am also extremely low on gas.

Thanks for any help!!!
 
No, not the starter solenoid.

It's almost certainly is that your battery is bad. I don't know why you say it doesn't match other threads here. The fact that you battery has normal voltage when not under load in no way clears it as good. If you didn't load test it, you didn't test it.
If your battery is bad and you used cheap jumper cables, then that's why it didn't work. You need really heavy (expensive) battery cables to jump a car with a bad battery (as opposed to a car with a weak or discharged battery).

The alternate possibility is that your positive or negative battery cable is bad or poorly attached at the battery, the ground point, or the main power junction in the trunk.
 
Put a charge on the battery, when the gages go crazy it is a sure sign of battery going dead, if your 2005 has it original battery you have reached the magical 7 year old life. A weak battery can still play radio and work lights but doest have the amps to turn the starter. Don't know how you "tested" battery, but if not tested under load test means little.


*Joegr was posting as I was composing....as usual.*
 
if the battery is low or weak enough, jumper cables might not work right away, i have seen many times (and talked to a couple of guys on the phone) where the dead car had to sit with the jumper cables hooked up and the helper car running for a good 10-30 minutes.

most of the time when i see people have jumper cables in there car, they are very cheap with thin wire (relatively speaking) and can not provide enough amperage to start the car.


how I know its not your starter solenoid: you said your self that when it would crank over, it turned over very slow, meaning that the solenoid was working, the slow crank is a result of low power turning the starter (hence why it is turning slower than normal)

why I think its your battery: your radio presets are gone (a system that has absolutely nothing to do with the starting or ignition system in the car) which can only happen from a loss of power.




while i applaud your searching, I'm a little confused as to why you think this is different from every single one of the other two thousand threads about a dead battery not being able to start the car.
 
correct, OP indicated it was 'extremely' low on gas. and he has indicated that he has tried to crank it multiple times plus its sitting out in the cold... so battery may not be junk.. yet.
gas and recharge battery may cure what ails.
OP are you trying to jump with a jumppack or jumper cables & a car?
bc if the battery is very dead it dont matter how big that pack is and it may need to be connected to another car for a period before it starts even with cables as dude above mentioned
 
I had a similar issue this morning. We had single digits last night and this morning I had a little slower crank then normal and then the gauges jumped, that's the only issue.

For those who recall, my factory alt is on the fritts (awaiting HO from wrangler this week) I'm hoping its the cold weather because the 1800 kinetik I got this summer wasn't cheap. Maybe the new alt will cure the problem?
 
Well thus is the first instance and I'm not driving it until it arrives. I'm just hoping its mainly the cold showing a little weakening.

The gauges wouldn't be a marginal coil would it, or am I stuck with my $200 battery taking a beating?
 
Broseph said:
Well thus is the first instance and I'm not driving it until it arrives. I'm just hoping its mainly the cold showing a little weakening.

The gauges wouldn't be a marginal coil would it, or am I stuck with my $200 battery taking a beating?
Click to expand...

The gauges are the battery voltage falling too low to maintain the microcontroller operating the gauges. When the voltage comes back up (after releasing the starter) the gauge cluster does a quick self calibrate so that it can correctly control the gauges. To do that, it has to sweep the gauges between maximum and minimum.
 
new battery time this exact same thing happened to me last winter and I went to autozone and they kept telling me the battery is good. I went to the dealer and got a new battery and vuala issue is gone.
 
After I ran the car for awhile and then restarted the gauges were fine. Guess it charged back up.

My issue is when my alt arrives Saturday would the battery if its bad - hard to imagine since its 6 months old-fashioned make the alternator crap out. I'd hate to shell out another $185 on those batteries.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 247 (members: 1, guests: 246)
Back
Top