So I go to start my car today and theres nothing dosent crank or anything, headlights dont work, interior head lamp works, stereo dont work, horn dont work, its there but very very quit. The gauges just sit there and tick and jump up and down slightly. I put jumper cables on and nothing the lights still wont work. Nor will it start. I put a new optima red top in about a month in a half ago. If i flip the switch to turn my headlights on the interior light goes off. Iam puzzeled please help. Its a 2002 2.4 53000 miles.


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Make sure your cables are tight then put a multimeter to the battery to see what kinda voltage you have coming out of it. Could be the alternator. Could just not be recharging your battery and you might have drained it almost completely. If you check those and there's still a problem, check your fuses under the hood next to the battery, and the fuses in by your dash. My g/f's cavy had a fuse that made her car act like there was a dead battery but the fuse was blown just enough that it would arc across sometimes and would not work others.

Usually if you try and start your car and it just makes ticking sounds it usually means the battery is shot

Quote:

Usually if you try and start your car and it just makes ticking sounds it usually means the battery is shot

or the battery cables are all ceruded(or however you spell it)
take the battery cables off the bateryy, clean the cables and battery post (if dirty)
if not dirty, put them on nice and tight

What is static voltage of the battery? Should be 12.5V


- 2004 Cavalier - 124k, owned since new