I took my car out of the garage on the weekend and moved it to the driveway. Started up like a dream and ran great when I took it for a quick spin. It sat from Saturday until today untouched, and when I went to move it, everything was completely dead. No lights, no chime, nothing. I assumed I had left something on and killed the battery, so I put it on a charger. As soon as I hooked it up, the charger showed the battery at 100%. Thinking maybe the charger had lost its marbles, I put a different one on, and it also showed the battery fully charged. Any idea what could have possibly happened to cause this? What can I even check to see what might be the cause?
Check the primary power studs under the c500 connector by the battery are tight. Some of the fuseable links come off it also. Hot all the time so don't short your wrench out on anything.
[This message has been edited by Dodgerunner (edited 04-01-2014).]
I've checked all the connections below the C500. The lower one with the cable coming off the battery was very loose, almost turned right off the end of the stud, so I took that one off, sanded the connection clean and put it back on. The upper one with the red head on it looked OK but I took that one off as well and cleaned it up and put it back on. Unfortunately there's no change in the car, just no juice at all. I tried putting a multi-meter from the negative battery post to the the two connectors, and I was getting a reading, which I think tells me there's connectivity there. Are there any checks I can perform to see if the fusible links are blown? Everything seems to look all right in that area, but I've really not done any work around the C500 before with the exception of my reverse lights.
if charger showing fully charged right away the battery is usually bad from my experience. a good way to tell is disconnect the battery so you eliminate every thing else and then try and charge it
If the battery is suspect, you could bypass the battery by disconnecting the negative cable. Connect booster cables from another battery to the Fiero cables to see if the car gets power.
[This message has been edited by David Hambleton (edited 04-02-2014).]
Check the primary power studs under the c500 connector by the battery are tight. Some of the fuseable links come off it also. Hot all the time so don't short your wrench out on anything.
This was my issue on my DOHC car the other night. Died rolling down the interstate with everything being dead as a door nail. Knew it had to be a ground or main power issue. Found thde upper stub barely loose causing my issue and I mean barely. Tightened it up and che ked the lower stud..
With winters where it gets rally damp at times corrosion can become a real problem on connectors at the same time I have seen trickle chargers fail and end up draining the battery and you know what happens when a dead battery gets too cold.
I guess even with the occasional trickle charge over the winter the cold took it's toll on the battery. Put my spare battery in but still no trunk light (which I thought would tell me when things were working). Just for fun I thought I would turn the key on. Full power! Will have to check out the trunk light to see why it suddenly stopped working. Maybe that one is a fuse, but happy to be back on the road. Thanks for the suggestions.
[This message has been edited by NetCam (edited 04-03-2014).]
If you use a trickle charger over a long period, you can burn the battery up. They put out a constant 1 or 2 amp charge. You need a FLOAT charger you can leave on forever. It turns off automaticly when its fully charged, back on when it drops again. Less than $10 usually at HF.
There were a couple of times over the winter where I left the charger on a bit long, and that may have done some damage. I usually only leave it on for a few days at a time, but this winter was so freakin' cold there were times when I didn't go into the garage for weeks on end. I took the battery back to Canadian Tire where I bought it and they tested it for me. Showed that it was only putting out 9 volts, but was still good and was able to take a new charge. I'm going to keep my eye open for sales on smart chargers and will get one for next winter.
