Wife went to start car (2002 Grand Prix)after shopping- completely dead- no lights, radio, gages, clicks of any kind- only the gas gage showed any sign of life and it was erratic- Checked for loose connection at battery, tried to move battery cables side to side- they were tight- no sign of corrosion- ‘eye’ on battery was green- battery posts are the side type, flush with the battery wall and take a screw in stud-
had car towed to repair shop- was told that the positive post had corroded and fallen out. New battery and car was good to go- When I checked battery connections, they were tight but I only tried moving them side to side, not pulling front to back-
Has anyone ever heard of a battery post ‘falling out’ in this manner on this type of battery (AC Delco)?
Whenever I get such an explanation, my reaction is
“Really?! Show me!”
That should have taken care of your suspicions. At
this point we can never really know what was responsible
for your car’s no-start condition. For now I suggest
you give them the benefit of the doubt.
If the car works from now on, you can be happy. There’s nothing better than getting something fixed. The problem seldom happens, but when you think about it, you wonder why it doesn’t happen all the time. Metal held in by plastic and stressed by a wrench, subjected to acid, electricity and corrosion, shouldn’t be expected to last too long, although it usually does. It is kind of a miracle.
A green eye means that one cell is charged, any of the other 5 could be internally shorted, or the internal connection to the post, or any cell to cell internal connection could break.
Five year old battery, car works now, I wouldn’t second guess this one.
I suspect that Steve missed the pat about the car being about five years old.