Big Electrical Problem

[stevie_ray]

Went to leave work for lunch one day, car wouldn't start. Got a jump and got the car home. Took the battery to get tested and it was dead. Replaced the battery and car started. Drove it to work the next day and at lunch...dead battery. Got a jump and took it home. Had the alternator and voltage regulator tested. Checked all the fuses. They were all fine. Reinstalled alternator and voltage regulator and hooked up battery, then turned the key and it just ticked. No cranking. Nothing. Tried to turn the key again and sparks shot off the negative terminal on the battery. Have no idea what's wrong, now. Anybody have any ideas?

[George_Jetson]

If you have sparks coming off your battery terminals, it is evident that you have poor connections. The starter will pull app 90 amps no-load. This amount of current requires a secure, clean electical connection. There is a good possibility that there was nothing wrong with the battery, other than the fact that the poor connections inhibited the alternator from charging the battery properly. The battery cables on these cars are fairly generic, so you can "carefully" remove the entire cable. Take the cable to the local auto parts store, and buy a generic cable for less than $12 each. I would strongly suggest doing both the neg and pos, because chances are if the neg terminal is throwing sparks, the positive terminal is also is poor shape.

[stevie_ray]

If you have sparks coming off your battery terminals, it is evident that you have poor connections. The starter will pull app 90 amps no-load. This amount of current requires a secure, clean electical connection. There is a good possibility that there was nothing wrong with the battery, other than the fact that the poor connections inhibited the alternator from charging the battery properly. The battery cables on these cars are fairly generic, so you can "carefully" remove the entire cable. Take the cable to the local auto parts store, and buy a generic cable for less than $12 each. I would strongly suggest doing both the neg and pos, because chances are if the neg terminal is throwing sparks, the positive terminal is also is poor shape.

Thanks, George. I'll do that and let you know how it worked out. I appreciate the reply.

[DBrucher]

I had a similar battery drain problem on an old Chevy Blazer I used to have. After 2 dead batteries in 2 weeks, it turned out to be poor connection with the frame. Bought new grounding cables and one of the main grounds from the battery to the frame was rusted. Wire brushed it out, put a big fat washer and connectivity juice on it, and that solved it. Hope the idea helps.

[stevie_ray]

I had a similar battery drain problem on an old Chevy Blazer I used to have. After 2 dead batteries in 2 weeks, it turned out to be poor connection with the frame. Bought new grounding cables and one of the main grounds from the battery to the frame was rusted. Wire brushed it out, put a big fat washer and connectivity juice on it, and that solved it. Hope the idea helps.

Thanks for the help. I figure I'll be checking all sorts of cables, grounding and otherwise, when I replace those battery cables. Better safe than sorry. After checking everything else, my best guess is that a bad connection/bad cables is probably the problem. I'll let you guys know how it worked out once I replace the cables and clean up all the connections.

[pberku]

I had a similar battery drain problem on an old Chevy Blazer I used to have. After 2 dead batteries in 2 weeks, it turned out to be poor connection with the frame. Bought new grounding cables and one of the main grounds from the battery to the frame was rusted. Wire brushed it out, put a big fat washer and connectivity juice on it, and that solved it. Hope the idea helps.

Thanks for the help. I figure I'll be checking all sorts of cables, grounding and otherwise, when I replace those battery cables. Better safe than sorry. After checking everything else, my best guess is that a bad connection/bad cables is probably the problem. I'll let you guys know how it worked out once I replace the cables and clean up all the connections.

I had a similar problem about 1 month ago. But instead of replacing the whole cable, I bought just a new cable terminal from the Lexus dealer, and reattached it to the original battery cable. Much better and much easier than buying and changing the complete cable. Took 5 Minutes. and all is still OEM.

Apparently its a relatively common part, as the Lexus dealer had the part in stock.

Total cost about $15.00

Phil

[stevie_ray]

I had a similar battery drain problem on an old Chevy Blazer I used to have. After 2 dead batteries in 2 weeks, it turned out to be poor connection with the frame. Bought new grounding cables and one of the main grounds from the battery to the frame was rusted. Wire brushed it out, put a big fat washer and connectivity juice on it, and that solved it. Hope the idea helps.

Thanks for the help. I figure I'll be checking all sorts of cables, grounding and otherwise, when I replace those battery cables. Better safe than sorry. After checking everything else, my best guess is that a bad connection/bad cables is probably the problem. I'll let you guys know how it worked out once I replace the cables and clean up all the connections.

I had a similar problem about 1 month ago. But instead of replacing the whole cable, I bought just a new cable terminal from the Lexus dealer, and reattached it to the original battery cable. Much better and much easier than buying and changing the complete cable. Took 5 Minutes. and all is still OEM.

Apparently its a relatively common part, as the Lexus dealer had the part in stock.

Total cost about $15.00

Phil

Well guys, I checked the cables with my meter and they checked out fine on a continuity test. I replaced the terminals, because they were pretty corroded. I cleaned up all the connections and put lots of corrosion control spray on them. The car fired up. So I took it to O'Reilly for a test and they said the alternator had low output. I went to Autozone to get a second opinion and they said it is putting out a little over half the amps it's rated to produce. I'm going to give it a few days to see if everything works out alright, because much of the time, those computers they use there aren't that accurate. If I have to get a jump again because the battery was drained, then I'll probably replace the alternator. Thanks for all of your help, fellas.