Ok so my car has been acting up and not wanting to start from time to time. Long story short I would have to push start it sometimes. Thinking it was the starter maybe because it would make a couple clicks then no click at all. Turns out my battery wasnt giving enough juice. Bought new battery lasted a few days car would start evertime. Went out to eat one night get back out my car wont start. had to push start it again. I drive it straight home Turn it off and it wont start again. The next day I push start it so i kept turning it on and off no problem. Today it started right up got to work turned it off and it would turn back on had to push start again. Any ideas of maybe it being the actual starter going bad or maybe a bad ground. I'm wondering ground because I have had problems where my gauges would randomly stop working and cause my power steering to go out so maybe its electrical. Any ideas?

 

Alternator?

 

sounds like it

 

Likily for you the LSJ alternator is the cheapest ecotec alt at autozone. And you can change it out in a parking lot in about an hour or less.

 

Yeah but I'm not losing power I still have full power for headlight radio sub all that stuff

 

its not the alternator, if it was the lights would dim when driving and it would eventually quit.

it sounds like it could be the starter, being you hear it clicking id say the starter contacts are wearing out. however, do some checks before you toss a starter on. first, check your battery terminals on the battery, clean as needed. also clean your ground cable where it bolts to the body (remove the bolt, use sand paper and clean the cable and body). check your engine grounds, again, remove the cable from both the body and block and clean with sandpaper. another thing you can do is a voltage drop test. connect a volt meter between the positive cable on the starter and the battery jumpstart post (or the battery + itself), if you have 1 volt or more showing when cranking, you have a bad battery cable. the last thing to check would be to make sure the starter is getting its start signal, do that by hooking the voltmeter to the small wire on the starter and ground, crank and see if you have voltage.

if everything checks out, change the starter.

 

I just changed the battery. We were thinking maybe a bad ground wire which is what could have been causing my gauges to randomly go out. I thought about just taking the starter out to go get it tested

 

Also where is that ground wire on the body at? And the engine ground on the block is it easy to get to?

 

It's definitly not the alternator, if you've got power and it's driving fine when it does. Probably a bad ground like some others are saying. If you're questioning the starter i'd have it tested before you buy a new one so you're not dropping money on parts you don't need.

 

where are all the grounds at?

 

Look down.


In seriousness, I know there is one that connects the head to the block, and one that grounds the starter to the block then on the j-body that same terminal goes from the block to the battery tray and then to the battery. Then beyond that I cant remember.

 

how much of a pain is it to get to them?

 

ya my care started doin weird **** today

im sitting idling and it starts sputtering slowly until it eventually dies, i jumpstart try to drive around to get power up and it dies, and hile the car was off it was doi weird **** like lights on gauge comin on and ewird **** with the electrical.

i think its the alternator but any input wud be nice. the cars like 20 miles from home and im going to get an alternator to take to put on it 2mrw

 

it was the red top... the optima failed and only one year old... good thing for their 3 year warranty

 

Alternator