My car (battery and/or alternator) just died....

[yankeekd25]

2003 Galant. Bought it with about 35,000 miles. It has about 40,000 now. I pulled up to my friends house to pick him up to go out, turned the car off, went inside for a few minutes, got out, went to turn it on, and the car just stalled. First time since I bought the car that something has happened like this. I know **** about cars, so I don't know if it's the battery or alternator. I open the hood, and theres a little bit of corrosion on top of the battery. Could this just be the problem? Is there any way of knowing without having it checked somewhere? We're gonna have it towed tomorrow to a place, but I just wanna know now if possible. I'll try to answer any questions about it if possible, but like I said, I don't know much about cars.

[Southern Beast]

When you went to turn the car on, did the engine try to turn on, or did it just click?

[yankeekd25]

When you went to turn the car on, did the engine try to turn on, or did it just click?

Um... I turned the key, everything lit up for a second, then I heard a clicking sound, and everything turned off.

[chris mason]

Dead battery.

[yankeekd25]

Hoped it was just this. Thanks Chris and Justin.

[Southern Beast]

Dead battery.

Yeah, Chris beat me to it, but that seems like the likely cause.

I'm sure you can handle replacing the battery, but if you have corrosion, you also might wanna clean or replace the terminals, too.

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/car-battery-terminals

[BigCorey75]

Um... I turned the key, everything lit up for a second, then I heard a clicking sound, and everything turned off.

sounds like a starter to me, like if the battery was dead none of that **** would come on, but since u flip the switch, and the lights come on, then the battery is good, then when u turn to start it clicks and everyhting switches off, its a starter...


if u wanna get it crunk, find ur starter, usuall on the side of then egnine towards the bottm of the block, there will be three prongs on it, there is a silinoid swicth that has a wire connected to it, then a hot switch and ground, turn the key to where the power is one so ur lights and all that stuff is on, turn off the ac and the radio, take a screw driver or some long piece of metal and touch the silinoid and the hot swicth and it should crank right up, dont worry u wont get shokced i started my car like this plenty of times before i had the money to get it fixed


a car that new, starter might be gone out, i doubt it or prob like mine just has a loose wire, try to get it checked out

[Southern Beast]

You could tap the starter with a long rod, too, can't you?

[BigCorey75]

yeah you could, but that normally works if its water logged, but it can help, u know tap it then try and crank it, but if u can cut the switch on and touch both noids together it will turn over and crank up

[Altephor]

Sounds like a bad battery. Happened to my car, died at the bank, got it jumped, drove home, turned it off. Went to turn it back on and it was dead again. Battery went bad.

[yankeekd25]

Yup. Just the battery. We are also getting 4 new tires, fixing the brakes, and an oil change. One stop shopping.

[Stumprrp]

good call on getting everything done man, dont be like me and beat the hell out of your own cars, lol..