My wife’s '93 Chevy Lumina has a strange habit of not starting unless I charge the battery overnight. The lights don’t dim when I turn the key which would normally tell me that the battery and connections are fine, but the solenoid won’t energize. If I trickle charge the battery overnight it will start fine. Now this generally happens after the car has been sitting for an extended period of time. Computer maybe?? Any ideas?
“… the battery and connections are fine”
No, I don’t think so. Start by removing the battery cables and cleaning the battery posts. Do the same with the ground connection. This no-cost bit of maintenance just might do it for you.
Thanks for the reply. I would normally agree with your fix except for the fact that if poor connections or a weak battery was the problem the lights would go out or at least dim severly when I turn the key and they don’t do that. Also trickle charging the battery wouldn’t cure a poor connection problem.
Clearly you know enough to know what a bad connection would do.
Get a multimeter and see what you measure on the starter’s fat lead and the thin lead while starting.
try putting the shifter in “N” or “R” or one of the drive ranges and see what happens