xAerox

My 2001 Grand Am GT has been acting very strange lately. Basically, every morning when I go to start my car, I find that there is no power whatsoever. The remote keyless entry is unresponsive, the dome lights are dead, the anti-theft light that typically blinks red is off, and the car makes no attempt to start or turn over. It is simply dead as a door nail. However, if I make an unsuccessful attempt to start the car, about a minute or two later the car suddenly springs back to life and the anti-theft light begins to blink again. It is at that point, the car starts like normal and it runs flawlessly for the rest of the day.

The problem used to happen ever once in a while but lately the problem has gotten much worse and it now happens every single morning. I have tried diagnosing the problem with a meter and I have found that the battery registers ZERO VOLTS across the +/- terminals while it is in dead mode. This morning I was again verifying this measurement when suddenly my meter shot up to +12V and the car became active again. It started like normal and ran fine all the way to work.

My suspicion so far is obviously with the battery but I had it installed new in February. There does not appear to be any corrosion on the terminals either but it appears to awaken shortly after a load is applied to it which would suggest some kind of capacitance problem. But anyways, has anyone heard of a problem like this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

grfnkl

Yes i've had this similiar issue. I would recommend tightening your battery cables as tight as you can get them. You can also remove that rubber ends off the cables to ensure a better connection to the battery. Either one of these should solve your problem.

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xAerox

Thank you for the quick reply! I will try your suggestions and report back in the morning.

xAerox

Well so far so good; Started right up this morning. I found last night that the negative terminal was a little loose and coroded. I still need to give it some time but hopefully this takes care of it once and for all.

Another thing I noticed is that I am no longer hearing an audible "whistle" sound when I accelerate. I did not mention it originally but it had been an ongoing problem in the time after I had the new battery and starter coil installed. It goes without saying that I should have checked the battery connection a long time ago. With all of the problems that I have had with this car in the past, I guess that I wasn't expecting it to be so trivial.

Thanks again for the help. This forum has saved me again. (prior passlock reset required)

grfnkl

Great, I'm glad to hear it's resolved! Sometimes the little things can make the biggest difference!

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