Back again with another electrical issue. I'm not sure if any of you remember me from the alternator issues about a month ago.

Anyway the atternator is all replaced and good (I think). Heres the new problem. All the sudden out of nowhere last Sunday, I went to start my car and nothing, all the power got sucked out, dome lights went out and everything else. I didn't even get a click from the starter. I turned the key to off and about 5 seconds later the battery build it's charge back up enough to power my dome lights. So, having run into this problem a couple times in the past 7 year relationship with my car I figured it was a good ol Michigan winter taking it's toll on the Cold Cranking Amps of the battery. Although the battery is only a year old i went and had it test. She was down on volts about at 10, but proved to be good. They charged it and tested it again, and it was still good. So they told me it could be my starter. He said sometimes starters in there old age draw too much volts thereby preventing the battery from being able to produce that amount, thereby killing it.

Any ideas?

So what did you do to fix the last---idling problem?

Do you still have the Under drive pulley on?



Alont

Changed the alternator (to fix the charging problem). Put the stock pulley back on, cleaned the IAC sensor, put in a new IAT sensor, and put on a new cone air filter. She idles right at about 750 solid now, no more falling to 650, well when it's running. Now I have this damn problem. One thing after another anymore on that car.

I had this problem on my mustang (2.3, don't be mean). It was the starter solenoid. It was shorting a little to the chasis ground, which would kill the battery overnight, but fire right up on a jump start and show almost 14 volts when running. Ford uses an external solenoid, I don't know where it's at on a Sunfire.





John Wilken
2002 Cavalier
2.2 Vin code 4
Auto

Hi Beach

Is the main earth point clean and tight?. You would need to disconnect it and reconnect to find out.

Then make sure the connections to the starter solenoid are clean and tight (With the battery Disconnected first, of course.)

I would do this before spending any money as it may just be a bad connection. A bad connection could prevent the battery from charging correctly as you drive.

Good Luck


Alont

Well I braved the frigid temps (of course it has to be 20 with a windchill of 10 out and not a nice 30 to 32 degree day) and tinkered. I put the battery back in, and noticed that when i tightened up my pos terminal bolt it would get tight then loose. Like a bad thread. So I tightened up, went to start it up, same problem. TIghtened it up a little more and it broke loose again, so i tightened it up close to the point where it breaks loose and got all my power back. Went to start it, and the starter cranked then i lost power again. So i feathered the bolt a wee bit, went back and she started up. So my guess is it was a bad thread (side post) in my battery. This seams logical because not only did my battery test fine, but they test em by the top post as well as charge them. So i'm gonna go back with the receipt from a year ago and get another yellow top wana bee druacrap battery. I hope this solves it. Again thanks for all the help. I know I can always count on the org members for plan B.

Nice to hear you have traced the problem, thanks for posting the solution


Alont