Car won't start

car for a while won’t start the enjene won’t turn over so had a starter put in and now it wouldn’t start this am until I kept trying to start it then it started up but only drove it one eight mile to the stop sign and when I went to turn it stalled out! It’s a 98 Jetta volkswagon

Punctuation is a wonderful thing. If you can, please go back in and edit your post. (use the little picture of the pencil link). Use some punctuation to make it more readable, maybe throw in some proper grammar, and add a few more details like when you try to start it does it say, “RRRR rrrrr RRRR” or does it say, “click, click, click” or when you turn the key, does it just say, “…” (nothing), what does it do? Does it start or try to start when hooked up to jumper cables? Frankly you haven’t given us adequate information to go on. Please come back with more details and we’ll try to help. Maybe it’s out of gas?

Sorry about that I was in a hurry. Let me start over…At first, the car when I tried to start it would go RRRRrrrrRRRRR and I would keep trying and it would finally start. One time it did nothing and that’s when I had them put in a starter! My mechanic said that he checked the ignition and the solinoid thingey!! Anyway it started after the starter was put in for two days, then this am it woouldn’t turn over.RRRRrrrrRRRR took a couple of tries and finally worked until I went down the road and it stalled out when I stopped at the stop sign…Hope this helps…

It is possible the battery is not getting charged up when the car is running, or the battery is bad and won’t hold a charge. If the battery tests good, then the alternator isn’t doing its job. Perhaps the alternator is bad, or a rectifier is bad, or a loose belt isn’t driving the alternator properly.

Did your mechanic check the charging output of the alternator? Have all the connections to the battery and from the battery to the starter and to ground been checked for corrosion, and cleaned if necessary? This all should have been checked out before putting a new starter.

If you had to get a couple of “jump starts” over the last few days perhaps the alternator was damaged by the jump starts.

It sounds like uncleturbo is on the right track. If you had trouble starting it at first, say you went RRRrrrRRR quite a bit, you probably burned up the starter and stressed the battary. Then after they changed the starter, (maybe they stuck the battary on a charger too?) if worked for a little bit (two days to be exact) and the battary finally died because it wasn’t getting recharged by the alternator (which got burned out trying to keep a stressed out battary alive). The first thing you need to do is get your charging system checked out. Unfortunately if you cannot drive the car, that makes it a little more difficult to take it to autozone, checkers, etc, who will check it out for free. Somehow you need to charge up your battary (ie: battary charger, jump start from another car, etc) then go from there.

If the car easily starts when a jumper car/battery is used, it shows that the battery connections are poor. The battery cable clamps can be tight; but, still have poor ELECTRICAL connection. This is usually because of corrosion on the battery terminals and on the battery cable terminals. The battery cables need to be disconnected, cleaned with a wire brush, coated with Vaseline, and re-attached.
It’s easy for a mechanic, who has a multimeter (aka voltmeter), and who knows how to use it, to check the voltage at the battery post. With the engine off, the battery voltage should be 12 1/2 volts. With the engine running, the battery voltage should be 13 1/2 to 14 1/2 volts. This voltage will show that the alternator is charging. By the by, this stuff is Mechanics 101.

Thanks for getting back to me! I did take it across the street to a shop who checked out the battery after it was dead. They charged it for me and said the battery was good. This happened in the first few days when it wouldn’t turn over I thought it was the battery. I think my mechanic checked the alternator before he put the starter in but I will check with him and ask him about the connections to the battery too. I never had the car jumpstarted!

Thanks for responding but I never had it jumpstarted! Everytime it wouldn’t start I would keep trying and then wait 15 minutes and try again in which case I was successful. It wasn’t until I tried starting it that last time that it went click, click, click that I got it to my mechanic and he put the starter in.

STILL, have the battery connections, and the voltages, checked. Then, you might need a mechanic who can/will use a multimeter to check the wiring, and the voltages, to the starter and starter solenoid.

There are just too many mechanics who can’t, or won’t, check wiring and voltages in circuits. I don’t excuse them. For you, it’s the chore of finding one who can and will.