Ok so my Avenger just started acting up on me. To keep this short Im just going to give the fine points.

-Started about 2 mornings ago, no symptoms of any problems. Turn key on, dash lights on full and bright. Crank, battery dies without attempting to turn the car over.

-I cant start the car with a battery charger. In fact, the ammeter says the battery isnt taking ANY amps at all when charging, even though its acting dead. The car has to be jumped by another car to start.

-I can disconnect the negative cable while running with no stalling or stuttering. Good alternator.

This is probably the most odd/discomforting.

-When I have a battery charger hooked up to the car on start, when the key is turned you can hear an electrical humming. Crank it and the starter/relays click at a rate of about 10 times per second, and some crazy shit has happened like the wipers going on their own while doing this...

Also, the battery light has come on, but I already know there is a problem. Swapped in a known good battery to the same results.

WTF is going on???

This situation has been seen before by one of the SoCal locals. Battery, ECU, alternator, relays, and sensors were all fine. Turns out, the inside of the battery cable connectors had decayed to such an extent that high amperage would not conduct through the wires. You could get low amp electronics to work without issue (i.e., dash lights), but as soon as you try to crank the car it would almost appear like you have no battery power at all.

Inspect the inside of your battery cable connectors.

I think EZ is on to something with the cables. The proof might be in front of you. When you hook up the battery charger, you connect both positive and negative to the outside of the cable connectors at the battery posts. Doesn't start. When you jump the car with another car, you hook up the positive to the outside of the cable connector at the battery post but you hook the ground up to the body. Car starts. That might indicate that your problem is in the ground cable or connector. That could mean a corroded connector or heavily frayed cable (inside the insulation).

Corbin
'95 ESI-T

Now with more power and fewer leaks



Humble servant of the Wiki

Very common issue especially with FORDs, seriously.

Electrical wire conducts electricity through the surface of the strands of wire, not through the core as people think. Battery cable will corrode underneith the jacketing without you being able to tell and they will no longer carry enough amperage to start the car.

This sounds like you have multiple issues however; start with the battery cable.

As far as the battery not takign a charge, as a battery becomes charged it developes resistance across the terminals. This resistance is why a dead battery will charge at 60amps and slowly drop to 10 amps as it charges.

Since the battery light is coming on I would investigate the power leads coming from the alternator to make sure they are not corroded at the alternator.

You need to get a ammeter on the Alternator wire to see what kind of amperage is coming out of it at idle and at 2000 rpm and at what voltages.

Terry

Thanks for the advice guys. I think you definately have something, I had the door open and was wiggling the ground cable and the lights were getting brighter and dimmer, but the connector was secure on the battery. So Im thinking replace the whole ground cable from the battery to the trans bolt. Whats weird though is I noticed the door lights would get brighter when I turned the key to acc...

Sooooo

Just replaced my negative cable. First replaced just the battery to chassis, then replaced the chassis to starter/tranny bolt. Same results. I unbolted, wire brushed, and dielectric greased the ground strap that goes to the intake mani and the grounding point right next to the washer tank. Still acting up. Its getting really weird, you know how the lights dim down slowly after you close the doors? Mine is doing that but pulsating bright, dim, bright, dim, while it does it. Still getting electrical feedback in door locks, windows, radio, wipers, and door chime. Interior lights get brighter when I turn the key to acc. And the last time I got the car started (with a charger on 200 amp), when I turned it off the interior lights got SUPER fucking bright and the windshield wipers moved on their own.

Getting pretty fucking pissed off though, I have a worthless car, and an Eclipse with a broken window that I can drive because of some worthless piece of trash.. FML..

did you look at th epositive cable liek we told you too?

Flip the underhood fuse box up and start looking there as well

Finally figured it out. I noticed I had 13 volts at the battery terminal and 4 volts at the power wires terminal. Took it off and looked at it real close, and there was a shim so small it looked like part of the terminal itself. Managed to pry that out, and there was so much copper corrosion that it was thick like clay. I cleaned the inside of the terminal and the outside of the shim, and viola, I have a running car again.