My wife’s car is driving me nuts!! I pulled it out of the garage and it started just fine. 30 minutes later, I turn the key and "click, click. Won’t even turn over. Lights are still bright, radio working fine etc. This is the second time this has happened in 3 months. Sometimes I have to jump it, and other times it just decides to start like nothing was ever wrong. I replaced the battery the first time and it did have excessive build up on the negative ground cable.I have had the car tested and no codes. I did notice when driving around 40 mph and let off the throttle, then lightly accelerate, it felt like it had a slight miss in it. Some times were worse than others…I just had to go jump it again in town…geez. Anybody else had this problem, I sure would like to hear how you got it fixed. Thanks guys.
Look at the positive battery cable assembly. You’ll see two positive leads out of the cable assembly. One goes to the starter and other goes to the power distribution center. Corrosion can leach down under the cover where a poor connection is created to the starter. So everything works except the starter. The cheapest thing to do at this point is replace the possitive cable assembly to see if this remedies the problem.
Tester
Thanks, I just checked the cables. They are clean and the battery is about two months old. I followed the other cable that runs into the fuse box and that connection looks clean as well. I just put the battery charger on it to get it in the garage. I will get a new cable like you suggested and see if that helps. it went a whole month and a half without a problem and now its acting up again. It will start ok if you jump it, but like I said before, the lights don’t really go dim so I wasn’t thinking a bad battery or anything, especially since its new. Thanks for the advice, I will try a new cable and see what happens.
What’s the voltage across the battery terminals? The voltage should range between 11.9V (fully discharged) to 12.6 to 12.7V (fully charged). Less than 11V may indicate a bad battery cell. If the car makes a lot of short trips the battery is not getting recharged.
Another thought, the next time this happens try starting it in Neutral instead of Park. The Neutral safety switch may need adjustment.
Ed B.
I’d have to look again but I believe that has a “run-down” protection to save the battery if something is on. So all the accessories can work but the battery is still run down too much to run the starter. While I was waiting for a tow with my 09 after hitting a raccoon, the battery would no longer run the starter or even the flashers, but there was enough reserve to run the accessories and door locks etc. Guess what I’m saying is to have your alternator checked and also have it checked for a parasitic drain on the battery. Like was said though, it would be helpful to know if the battery is actually drained or not when it won’t start. If its drained, then you aren’t getting it charged up or something is eating the power when its off. (Got any after market stuff hooked up like computers or cell phones plugged in?)
Have you checked your charging system? Your new battery may not be getting properly recharged.
Can I assume from your post that “jumping” the car works?
Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I took the battery back today and had it replaced, they said it was the wrong battery for the car and in fact it tested bad… I did a battery drain test after installing the new battery and the multimeter showed .13 after thirty seconds and held steady. I also removed the starter and checked the connections there, no corrosion of any kind. I do not have any aftermarket accessories on the car. I have noticed in the past that whenever I slow down to around 40mph, then lightly start to accelerate, I feel what seems like a “miss”, the car jerks a little but not real bad, sometimes a little worse than others. I checked the plug wires and did find a very faint rub mark where the wire was laying on the manifold, didn’t look like it was into the actual wires though. I taped it up and moved it away from the manifold but drove it just a few minutes ago and it did it again. I don’t know if this a totally different problem or has something to do with the battery situation. I saw in the post that I needed to check my alternator, can someone explain how I can do that and if I can use the multimeter to do it? Thanks again for all the help guys, I really appreciate it.
And yes Mountainbike…jumping the car did always work.
I came across this technical bulletin, but says I have to pay to see the repair.
TSB #PI-0090-B
NHTSA ID #10038345
Date Announced: FEBRUARY 01 2012
Additional Info: How to Fix
Summary: BUICK/CADILLAC/CHEVROLET/GMC/PONTIAC/SATURN: THERE MAY BE AN INTERMITTENT ENGINE HESITATION OR FLUTTER. THE CAMSHAFT SENSOR TERMINALS LIKELY HAVE POOR CONNECTIONS. *RM UPDATED 8/1/11. *PE UPDATED 4/16/12. *PE
I had a slight miss under load on mine and turned out to be a spark plug wire. Only had 68K on it. Depending on your mileage, might be worth just putting a new set on.
Thanks Bing, I will definitely do that, did yours only miss at a certain speed as well? Just curious. Mileage just turned 60,000.
My 2008 G6 GT is doing the exact same thing. To make things worse it even dies when I back up it acts just fine then just dies I have to put him in park then restart him up & everything is fine again. & just like yours it only happens a few times a month & then fine then 2-3 months later here we go again. I’ve had him to dealerships & just like yours they can’t find out what’s wrong. Mine is an Evil Evil car.
& my husband agrees with the whole thing of it driving him nuts!!!
Mine had over 2k worth of repairs I had the CAM sensor replaced, the crank sensor, battery, & the cables, spark plugs & wires, & a few other things that they did believe was wrong with it all dealership parts so no cheap stuff & yet he still does the same thing at exactly the same speeds yours does. My man keeps saying to just knock him into neutral & push him over a cliff.
The miss was just a slight hesitation under load. Started out at about 50 mph in high gear when accelerating slightly, then would do it at lower speed and more often. Just one wire was bad but of course you have to (and should) replace the whole set.