02 Altima start problems

[gettintired]

Have an 02 Altima, and lately (for the past month), I have been having charge the battery about once a week-I will go to start it and NADA!. (Have a little 1v battery charger - only takes a minute to charge it up again) Took it to Auto Zone and they say it isnt battery, alternator, or starter. Their suggestion was to check the cables. How to go about doing this and where to start?

Thanks!!!!

[JustSayGo]

Battery chargers are rated by amps. Small would be 10 amp. 1 amp would be good to slow charge a motorcycle size battery. If your battery were actually dead a small charger will not recharge it in a few minuts. Next time the engine won't start, turn your headlights on. If the headlights come on try to start the car and see if they go off. In either case if the headlights don't stay on this would be an indication that there is a bad connection. Perform a visual inspection of the battery cables. If you don't see anything obvios, the next step is to prove that you don't have a bad connection with a DVOM. If you do have a bad connection you will use the DVOM to diagnose the exact location(s) of excessive resistance caused by a bad connection. Search DVOM. A good enough quality DVOM should be $20 or less from Radio Shack, Sears, or AutoZone. In simple terms the posative battery cable connects the battery to the starter solenoid. The alternator charge wire connects at the same place on the starter solenoid. With the DVOM set to voltage, put one probe on the positive battery post and the other on the alternator charge post and try to start the engine. Like golf, a low score is good. You shouldn't read more than .5 volts. The DVOM is measuring the differance in the voltage at the battery and the alternator. The negative battery cable connects the battery to the starter and alternator through the engine block, so use the DVOM to measure the differance in voltage between the two by putting one probe on the negative battery post and the other on the alternator housing and have someone try to start the engine. You should measure less than .3 volts. By moving the probes closer along the line back to the battery (if the voltage measured high) you will see the voltage decrease showing exactly where the bad connection is.