On the highway from St. Albert towards Morinville, my battery light was on. Stopped at the same station as wednesday night, filled up. And of course… car doesnt start. What the fuck? I ran inside and yelled at them that I’m never buying gas here again.
Battery seemed fine, my windows and stereo worked normally, but when i turn the key, it tries to turn once but nothing more.
My dad came, towed me down the street, and I jump started it. Ran fine, drove across Morinville, when I reached the edge of town, my lights dimmed, car sputtered, then died. Jump starting again didnt work. Battery was dead. Wierd. What a piece of junk.
HELP!
P.S. Definatly want to take to Speed Works this time… don’t feel like getting ripped off yet again… but my AMA will only tow 5 kms. Suggestions?
I have an extra starter… but have no clue how to go about replacing it.
I’m not really a technician, but are you sure it isn’t an alternator?
I had a friend’s firebird with an alternator that crapped out while we were sitting in traffic. At the next stoplight the car died and had very little power left in the battery.
See, after sitting for a period, batteries will regain SOME of their charge, enough to say, spin the starter a bit or drop a window. But, when the car is running with no alternator the ignition system drains all of the usable power, leading to the lights dimming and engine sputtering as it fights to have some spark delivered to the cylinders. The probs with the aforementioned firebird sound the same as the ones you are describing.
Then again, it probably isn’t even that and I am crazy. Hope you get it fixed quickly!
Shouldnt you know where it is if you found the belt? Make sure it is tight. Its on the passenger side, below your coolant reservoir. If you are gonna replace it, it’s easiest to get at from underneath the car.
Now my injectors are screwing up too, (charged the battery and drove home tonight) anything above 2500 rpms, the car jerks like a muther fusher. still drives, but lurches hardcore.
That alternator can be a bit of a pain. Get some ratchet wrenches, and you can change it yourself. You might have to loosen the bottom bolt before you loosen the adjusting bolt which is 12mm. 10,12,17 and 17mm should be all you need.
I changed my alternator a couple of weeks ago. I’ve had some domestic cars where you had to use a tire iron to tighten up the belt then quicly try to tighten the bolt up before the belt moved. Not on this puppy, there is a lil bolt on the top bolt of the alternator that does the tightening and loosing of the belt. You might have an easier time to change yours, if you have smaller arms than I do!! lol once you loosen the alternator and are able to turn it sideways you can then remove the positive and negative wires on the back of the alternator. BUT… before you even do any of that, remove the positive post from your battery!!
I agree with the guys its your alternator, I had the same thing happen to one of my cars before, the battery was drained so much that the electric fuel pump couldn’t work. Died right in the middle of an intersection on Canada day!! :? Stupid domestic cars!! NEVER AGAIN!! :twisted:
OK, so I replaced the alternator and the belt. Car starts up just fine, but idles funny, sputters a bit. When you step on the gas, it runs funny, sputters, doenst go higher than 2750 rpm. Really stupid if you ask me.
When I let go of the gas, it idles seemingly fine for a few seconds, but then dies, and the car shuts off. Starts up fine again after that, but it all starts over again.
Can ou drive the car to the shop and let us go through it, and check things out for you? It probably is the MAF that is causing the engine not to rev up. To be 100% sure, you can just unplug it, and it should run the same. On the other hand, I have a few MAF’s at the shop. Give us a call for a price.
Yeah, some of the wiring came loose while i was driving. Chopped up some hoses, but I replaced those right now, no difference. It also chopped a corner off the housing of the plug that connects to the MAF. Connecters are still good, but were really dirty. Cleaned it with electronic cleaner stuff. No difference.
I seperated the intake, MAF, and filtercharger. With them all put together, it shakes and rattles and idles funny. With Filter off, does the same.
When i took the MAF off the intake… IT RUNS FINE!
However, several seconds later, car dies. Turn it on, idles perfect, then dies. Stepping on the gas just kills it.
Cory, I have an extra MAF on my parts car ( ), but once this is figured out, I would really love to bring the car in and get you guys to go over the whole thing and make sure stuff is working properly.
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