I have a 95 Buick Century Station Wagon with about 63,000 miles on it, and last week it died twice, needless to say I have a brand new alternator, brand new battery, and it ran fine for a couple of days after my friend worked on it. Now it won’t start, the head lights and dashboard lights will come on, but it won’t turn over at all, I have heard it is my starter or fuses. I am new to owning a car, I get the oil changes and coolant, all of that, however, beyond that I am completely clueless to cars and have a very nice friend helping with it, but I still wanted to ask around to see if anyone had any thoughts.
Before you change the starter-- When you try to crank it do the lights go out ? If they do it’s most likely bad or corroded connections or cables. If the lights stay on try the neutral safety switch. You don’t have to buy one to find out, just pull the connector off and put a jumper wire in it.
It could be a number of things. The good point is, usually they are easy to find and not too expensive to fix.
If you don’t know a good independent mechanic, now is the time to find one. Check with friends neighbors etc. Stay away from anyplace that has a name you know from advertising.
The problem might be with the positive battery cable.
The battery cables on your vehicle are the side mount type with rubber covers. Over time corrosion can form under the red rubber cover for the positive connection. This can cause a voltage drop to where all the lights come on but the starter won’t function.
Remove both cables from the battery and peel back the red rubber cover on the positive cable to expose the terminals. If a lot of corrosion is found under this cover replace the positive battery cable assembly.
Tester
No my lights are fine, they don’t dim all the dashboard lights go on, but go off again as if I had started the car normally. Corroded connections seems to be a common thread, thank you for the input I will have to look into this.