My car is a 1988 Lincoln Town car. I bought it at the beginning of January and since has given me no trouble however one day my battery died. Made sense was very old and judging by how it wouldn’t jumpstart we figured it needed to be replaced. So we replaced it. Two weeks later my car drove perfectly fine ac was working stereo and lights perfectly fine, but then all of a sudden it wouldn’t start again. It had played out as the first situation but the battery wasn’t actually dead, we had it tested and it was fine. When we put it back in, the car cranked up and worked perfectly. Then later when we tried to start it again no luck. So we figured out that Everytime it wouldn’t start we would take out the battery and put it back in and then it would start. Sadly now I no longer have working ac as far as I know. Can someone please help me pinpoint the issue so I may seek repairs. Thank you.
That is not how you go about getting a car repaired. Ig you go to a shop and tell them someone n the internet says I need a new whatever, you are likely to get some perfectly good parts replaced.
Your symptoms are complex and your car is old. You need a shop that is good at electrical diagnostics, tell them what it has done and let them find out why.
Suspect a layer of lead sulfate on the outside of the battery posts and inside of the battery clamps. Try a standard cleaning process of the battery posts and battery lug clamps inside where they hang on the battery. If that doesn.t cure it go for the next step and check the connection of the main power cables to the block-positive at the starter. disconnect the ground connection to battery and clean the connections of the main cable terminal clamp where it bolts to the starter. and do the same cleaning treatment for the main ground cable to the engine block. These must be clean and tight. When you changed the battery you partly cleaned the corrosion layer enough for it to work for a while. If this process doesn’t work check the solenoid for bad contact by jumpering around it.
I’d try replacing the battery cables.
Your car is old enough where corrosion may have leached down to where the battery cable clamps are crimped onto the cables.
Then when the cables are handled when the battery is removed and reinstalled, a temporary good connection is created. So the engine starts.
The AC problem is a different issue.
Tester
Hey everyone, the issue was the starter selonoid we got it fixed and she runs great ac and all! Thank you for your help!