please help!

[blonde1]

I have a 98 cutlass and it wont start! It was running fine last night and this morning when I went to start it nothing happens, it wont turn over or anything, yet the lights and radio all will turn on. The battery is fine and our guess is the starter yet wouldn't I have had problems starting it before now if the starter was going bad? Please help if you can, I know very little about cars and don't want to have to spend a ton of cash if the problem may be something small. thank you

[zirb]

Try cleaning your battery cables at the battery.

[Fifty Thousand]

Well I dont think it would be the battery cables if the radio and AC turn on....but check their connection to the starter and alt etc....

[zirb]

If you have any corrsion at the battery you won't get full power at your starter. Yes every thing else will work, but you need the full power for your starter to work.

[GTP Dad]

The first place to start is with the battery. Just because you have lights and a radio does not mean that the battery has enough amperage to start the car. Try jumping it with another car. If it turns over then the battery is probably the culprit. If not then the starter should be suspected. One thing to try is to take a jumper cable and ground the negative terminal of the battery to somewhere on the engine block and try to start it. If it starts then the negative or ground wire on the car may have a corrosion issue that needs to be corrected.

Welcome to AF!

[ghostrdr]

My 1994 Cutlass did this to nme just the other day. I had turned it off befoire taking it out of park the night before so I turned the key to on put the tranny into drive then to park, turn the key to off and it started up. Oh I also cleaned the little chip on the key as I had a similar problem on my 1995 firebird. That could have been the problem too. But I am unsure if your keys have the same kind of chip in the metal, actually it is a resistor but hey same difference.

[Slade901]

Check the starter cable connections and make sure it is not corroded or no loose. Tighten them up. If the bolts of the starter to the engine near the flywheel is loose then tighten them up. As the temperature goes down, the battery charge capacity goes down and you may have enough power for the lights and stereo, the engine requires a whole lot of power just to crank over a cold engine. Loose bolt or loose cable connection to the starter could make it difficult to start or not start at all.