So I'm in the middle of moving and I haven't drove my '86 Fiero in about a month as I've just been using my girlfriend's car since its bigger to move some stuff. I went out to start it to move it and the windows went down and the radio came on. But as soon as I went to turn over the motor, nothing. Dead battery. So I have the car jumped by my girlfriend. I hook up her battery to it, it turns over after about a minute of charging and everything functions just fine. I pull off the jumper cables, touch the brake pedal and it dies.

The alternator is AC Delco and is about a year old, the battery is from O'reilly and its about a year old, and I put in a front mount battery tray about 6 months ago and have had no issues till now.

Do I need to just let it idle longer and re-charge, should I pull the battery and put it on a charger overnight? Or should I pull the battery and have it tested? Will a battery go completely dead from just sitting for a month or so?

Battery could go dead overnight if something is draining it. I would try putting it on the charger overnight and give it a try in the morning. If it still fails to start then I would pull it out and have it load tested at the local auto parts store. Might be something simple like a dome light left on or something. Good luck and hope that helps.

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Sad to say this is the best looking part of the car so far!

Donnie

I think I'm just going to ignore it for tonight and pull the battery out and charge it tomorrow. I need to get my Buick jumped too and move it to my new place. Parking has been tight, so its more or less been in "storage" at the far end of the parking lot for the last year or so, so it may need to be charged too.

Hopefully, the battery is just too low to keep the car running after I disconnect it from the jumper cables. If its just plain bad, I think its still under warranty so I can get it replaced.

Got the battery pulled last night and its been on a trickle charger all night. I'm going to take it to O'Reilly here in a bit for them to test. If the battery is good, what do I check next? The alternator?

Methinks your alternator. Same thing happened to me.. car sat for a while, tried to start it up, replaced battery, still wouldnt stay running. Does your battery dummy light come one when it dies/dying out? Anyhow, it stinks removing that, but if you do, autoparts stores can test it. Just make sure they hook up all the wires.. one tried to leave my clip harness off.

It just really sucks to get at the alt in the 2.8 with the auto trans. Dunno... I'll just try another battery and if that doesn't do it then I'll just have to pull the alternator. But I thought the car would at least start with a fully charged battery if the alt was bad?

Check the cables,the cable runs from the alt to the starter IIRC.
The starter could have a short to ground,draining the battery and all voltage and possibly causing the alt to not charge through it?
A bad battery or battery with a dropped cell can cause an alternator to not charge.
But assuming the batt is good it should start the car,unless the cable's are no good.
A visual inspection of cables aren't enough,must do voltage drop or resistance check across the wire.

Need to put a multimeter on the battery and see how much voltage it has before and while starting.
If it's not dropping any voltage more than likely switch bad or solenoid trigger bad?
Check for proper voltage at starter B+ terminal at solenoid,should be 12v.
Check for proper voltage on the S or I terminal (small wire) at the solenoid while a friend is turning key to start.
Should have a 12v momentary trigger when key turned to start.

If your battery tested good, but everything is going dead when you hit the key to start it you have dirty battery cables. They aren't making good connection. They are making connection in just one spot, and when you go to start it the high current of the starter burns off that point and then you have nothing. Removing the cable and re-attaching it seems to fix it but then it happens again.

Wire brush off the both the cables and the battery's connections and put them back together. It will work great after that.

[This message has been edited by phonedawgz (edited 05-31-2010).]

I'll try to wire-brush off the cables, but they're all new from when I put in the front mount kit (about 6 months back). I left the old cables (which are only a year old) in the back so that I could still jump the car from in back. It fires fine when I jump it from those posts so I think I'm just going to get the battery from the Buick, charge it, plug it in front and if it starts then the old battery is fubar. If it doesn't start, then theres a wiring problem and I'll try the "old" cables in the rear of the car and if it starts there then its a problem with my front mount kit.

I'll just to try a few things tomorrow and see what happens.

had a similar problem with mine it drove me nuts till i figured out it was the trunk light, the switch was a little corroded and stuck. would drain my battery dead over night.. popp the trunk quick and feel the lens to see if it is hot.. just a shot but that is my trouble was.

The trunk light doesn't really work right. It comes on once in a blue moon when I open the trunk lid, but 95% of the time, it stays off. It could be the source of a drain, but it shouldn't be keeping the car from starting with a freshly charged battery.

I'm charging the battery out of the Buick right now to try tomorrow. First in the front of the car, then in the rear. Hopefully, its either the battery or a bad ground somewhere. If I can just get it moved to my new place, I can go over the cables and clean all the grounds as I need to. If it doesn't start in the front but does start in the rear, then I think it may be the front ground cable. I didn't do a fantastic job of cleaning the metal before I mounted it to chasis but the rear cable is connected directly to the block so it should work fine with the battery in the rear. I was going to try it last time with the Fiero battery charged, but I didn't have any tools on me other than some channel locks so I couldn't put the battery back in the rear location.

My guess would be a bad ground on your front cable set..
I keep a cheapie 5/16 ratchet wrench in my trunk for times like this..

Figured it out and got it moved! I took my rear cables apart and cleaned them up a bit with sandpaper but they weren't long enough to put a battery back there. So.. I put my battery back in front and tried starting... with no luck.

Then I decided to remove my ground and clean.... only I can't get at it because all my sockets are an hour and a half away and a regular flat wrench can't get at it. Great. So, I decided to make do with what I had and clip one end of my jumper cables to the negative bolt on the battery and the other on the front hood support... I got some sparks so I knew I had juice and the car started right up! The cables would come off though with the hood sorta down and the car would stall, but I'd just hop out and reconnect them. It died 3 times in the mile long trip home, but it made it. Time to pick up a cheap set of tools from wally world and take off my ground and clean it.

What should I use to clean it? What should I use to ensure a better ground? A second cable? Sand the paint off around the bolt I'm using for a ground? Then what can I do to prevent it from corroding again?

After I get the ground fixed, I'm taking it back to O'Reilly to have the alternator checked (with it in the car) just in case.

Clean - wire brush - sand paper - grinder. Whatever its going to take to get it clean

To keep it from getting bad again - dielectric grease

http://www.permatex.com/pro...c_Tune-Up_Grease.htm

Dielectric grease is actually non-conductive however when you bolt the parts together tighty the grease is forced out where the parts touch. That surface also won't corrode since the metal is contacting the other metal surface.

Use it on your light bulb sockets, on your trailer connector, on your spark plug wire boots and anywhere you want to keep water out of an electrical connection

If you are getting 14.7 with the car running don't bother taking the alternator to anywhere. It's working fine.

[This message has been edited by phonedawgz (edited 06-02-2010).]

Ah, dielectric grease! I have some somewhere, I'll have to find it. I use it on my spark plug boots but I didn't think to use it on my ground cable. I've got sandpaper, so I'll just use it to clean up the area thats touching. I haven't found my multimeter yet so I may just take it somewhere and let them test it for me since they're just down the street anyway. We'll see...

I'll have to dig through my other tools to see if I can find something suitable to remove the bolt with. A flat wrench won't do it at least.

The HUGE current item on your car is the STARTER. Since the battery cables usually connect to the starter directly and the neg right to the engine block, now you are instead connecting the battery to the frame. You are relying on the engine to frame strap as the negative battery cable. My guess is that thing is way small, and gets toasty hot when you try to crank it. Best would be to have the battery connected directly to the block, AND both the positive and negative cables must be MUCH bigger than normal since you now have so much more cable to get through.

If nothing else make sure you have a battery sized cable running from the block to the frame, and the connections are made to clean, unpainted metal.

After you try starting the car feel how warm your extended cables are getting. If they are getting hot, you are losing a lot of power right there.

[This message has been edited by phonedawgz (edited 06-02-2010).]

I have battery cables used for grounds at both the front (battery to front of car, using a bolt just below the hood hinge) and at the back (from the head to the lower decklid hinge).

When I was jumping the car, I was using the cables at the rear. I have the front mount cable leading to a post in the old battery tray where it connects back to the original positive cable, then down to the starter. When I figured out how to bypass the front neg cable with the jumper cables, I just left them clamped on and could start the car as normally. When it popped off from bouncing around driving, the car would die and I had to get out and re-clamp and then restart. No need for a jump.

I haven't felt the cables for heat, but I'll try when I get the car to start again. All this cranking of the starter has depleted my batteries so I have to charge them again.

The annoying part is that it was working just fine about a month ago. I hadn't really drove the car in a while because we were using my girlfriends car to drive around town to look at rentals and to move stuff. Now its all kinds of crazy. I still get power when I use the jumper cable to bypass the front negative cable and just clamp on the front hood support lift. Maybe I'll just get another short battery cable and add it to the battery and run it to the bolts holding down the hinge. Or is that just silly?

Still having the problem, but I think I know what the culprit is. I moved my ground cable to the lower crossmember brace after sanding the area first with some sandpaper. I bolted the cable back on, hopped in the car... and got the exact same symptoms. The dash lights up, but as soon as I turn the key over, nothing. So... I went ahead and made sure the battery was indeed charged by using my jumper cables to ground the negative pole to the hood lift and she started right up. Pulled the jumper cable, hit the brakes, and the car died. Re-connected jumper cables, hit the brakes, still ran fine.

I think that my ground cable is bad. Its acting like its internally shorted, probably where it bends around from the battery to go through the hole in the tray. Its just a cheap cable from Wal-Mart so I really shouldn't be surprised. I'll just have to get another cable or two from Autozone and hook those up and if the car starts normally, then the cable was the culprit.

Also, I'm thinking my alternator may have problems. If the car is dying after I push the brakes with the ground connected and my volt meter is wiggling (doesn't wiggle at all when the jumper cable is grounding the battery) does that indicate the voltage regulator in the alt is on its way out?

It squeals and doesn't charge when it gets wet (no leaf catchers in my motor vents and the "mud flaps" in the wheel well areas are missing) so I'm thinking it may be damaged from that

Thoughts? Suggestions?

When I 1st put my motor in I had the same symptoms as yours. Mine was grounding. I had my negative batery cable grounded to frame and then the strap to the motor. It will not work this way. The battery negative cable must go directly to the block and have a grounding strap to the frame. Is this the way yours is currently set up?

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Sad to say this is the best looking part of the car so far!

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/080998.html

Donnie

Yeah, I don't have a ground going all the way back to the motor. Its been working just fine for 6 months though till it randomly decided to quit cooperating... I just moved so my finances are shot so I can't afford to go out and buy the proper gauge welding cable to go all the way back to the block or I would.

Your alternator sounds fine. Yep you still have a bad connection to the battery. Keep on testing things there and you WILL figure out where that connection is bad.

I hope the alt is fine... I'm really not in the mood to be pulling and replacing it.

Anyway, I think I've got it fixed I went to autozone and got a cheap $6 battery cable, disconnected the POS wal-mart cable, hooked the new one to the battery and to the lower hood support bolt. It fired right up without needing the jumper cables and it didn't die when I pressed the brake pedal. I drove it to the gas station, filled up, and came home. No problems!

I just need to move the ground back to where I originally had it and put my spare tire back in and I think I'm good to go, for now at least :P

Cool cool cool. Glad to see you got it tracked down.

Yeah, me too. It was getting annoying just looking at the Fiero sitting outside all lonely-like. I'm not paying for trash service yet so now that its running I tossed my trash on the luggage rack, strapped it down, and dumped it off in the dumpsters at my old apartment complex. Two problems fixed now

I need to re-route the ground and probably add a secondary, but for now its fine so I'm just going to let it be. Now I need to get some supplies for roller-painting it, pull some trim bits off, and start painting... but thats for another thread