Questionneg batt cable was loose fixed it, had to jump the car to start it. Noticed that head lights and dash lights were flickering, but not when still hooked up to jump car, removed neg cable they started flickering again. This whole time the headlights were on and car was running. As soon as I shut off headlights the car ran really ruff and died. It wouldnt start again without a jump.
AnswerHi Mike,
I don't understand why turning off the headlights would cause the engine to run rough, or for that fact why did you have the headlights "on"?
It is uncertain whether this is a problem with a low charge level of the battery or with the battery connections or possibly with the charging system wiring of the battery. Do you have a voltmeter to measure the present voltage of the battery?
It ideally would be about 12.4. It that were the case and it still won't crank over the starter then unless the battery were near its warranty time limit then I would suggest that you check the wiring at the battery including following the negative wire to its ground point and verifying that too is tight on the chassis. Then do a jump start and measure the voltage on the battery when the engine is running and see if that is around 14.7 volts.
If the battery now reads lower than 12v then it needs to be charged up with a plug-in charger or the car needs to be driven for a good part of an hour to get it recharged. I assume that you do have the "remote + jump post" at the strut tower as well, correct?
Is there any other history of this problem?
The other thing to try is for a fault code readout using the ignition key: Turn it "on-off-on-off-on and leave on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the odometer window of the cluster to see if the mileage reading is replaced by a 4-digit number preceded by a P. If so let me know what the number is.
Please read the PS (below) and respond to it.
Thanks for doing that.
Roland
