the red pill

Here lately it's taken a while to start my car. The starter will engage and sit there and crank for about 3 to 4 seconds until the engine finally fires up. Then everything is fine. When the starter is engaging sometimes it sounds like it's changing speeds or skipping teeth. For the past couple of months if I turn the engine off yet have the dome light on for about 5 minutes then when I go to start the engine it cranks slowly until the engine starts. Today at the gas station I stopped to get gas and when I started it up it cranked slowly like the battery was dead and I had to get a jump. I had just been driving for about 5 minutes on a cold engine.

Does anybody have any ideas what may be causing this?

DanA100

If you don't know how old exactly your battery is and if it gives you all these weird simptoms, i would recommend - replace it. Winter is comming and you don't want an old battery in your car during the cold days. New battery will make your life much easier.
Yeah, it costs money too i know, but they'll be well spent. If you have a Costco store around, go there and check what they can offer you. I got a battery for my brother's Corolla from there and it was ONLY $30 with 2 years free replacement warranty. Not bad at all.
If Costco is not around, go to any local auto parts store, tell them what you need and do not buy the most expensive option they offer you. As long as it has a year or more free replacement warranty, you'll be OK.

Some places, like Sears sell Very GOOD batteries (for a little extra $) and they will do a free test of your electrical system to see if everything is working OK. So, Sears is a good place to check out too.

Good Luck!

the red pill

I've had to buy one on both my neon and caravan and it fixed the problem (caravan also had a bad + cable that was an easy and cheap fix). I just don't want to buy a new battery and find out that the alternator or starter was giving out, or worse yet a bad cable seeing as how a cable is probably a bitch to replace.

What a couple of weeks this has been; I think I'll have to sit down with a cold one tonight.

crotext

You may need to clean the battery posts and connections good and check your alternator belt for tension.

SteveJ_in_TX

Here's my three:

1. Clean the posts/cable ends (like Crotext said).
2. Top off the cells with distilled water.
3. Have the battery tested at an autoparts place that has the machine that load tests them.

Also, I was rooting around Google because I remembered that Sears/Diehard changed vendors in 1994 from Johnson Controls to Exide, and that there were quality issues after the change. Sears went back to Johnson Controls in 1999, and I wondered who else they (JC) manufature batteries for since although I liked my old JC Diehard - doggone thing lasted forever - I am really put off by the upselling of Sears salespeople in their automotive business.

Well, thanks to Google, here's a guy who has a very comprehensive list put together that lists who builds what for whom. And I was happy to find out that the WalMart Maxx 78 that I put in my wife's Suburban is (you guessed it) a Johnson Controls battery, and it was cheaper than the equivalent Diehard.

Enjoy.<ul><li><a href="http://uuhome.de/william.darden/batbrand.htm">http://uuhome.de/william.darden/batbrand.htm</a</li></ul>

MrEd

Hi Benbaked,

I gotta tell you I feel your pain, and I am not sure if I would have held in as long with this car of yours as you have...I would only think that as far as you have come now...what with the money spent...and the aggravation, that hanging in may mean you are about at the end of it, and you might begin to enjoy that car as the rest of us are enjoying ours.

For what it is worth...my car always takes some time cranking when it is cold, in the morning before it starts...(it doesn't get that cold here in Vancouver) but it is cool.

Mine started to give me the same kind of symptoms a while back...my suggestion...test the battery, remove the alternator, get it tested as well, I was ready to replace the battery in my car because when I bought it, the guy told me they replaced the battery with a cheap one...ya, right, pricing the battery for this car revealed that there is no such thing thing as a cheap one, they were a 100 bucks minimum...this led me to do the tests to make sure it wasn't the battery, it wasn't...but if you read a few post back about my problem...you will recall that after I removed the alternator, and re-installed it, my problem has disappeared...not that you will experience the same luck...but what the hay...it's worth a try, right???

Cheers,

SteveAngry

Excellent link. Thanks Steve!

luvmyquattro

While you are at it, disconnect the cables at the starter and clean them with emery.(disconnect the battery first if you don't want to do any arc-welding)LOL. Dirty or loose connections can cause slow starter cranking. Hope this helps.

L8R
Rob