nothing!!!

[WhatThe?6]

Absolutely nothing happens when I try to start my 99. Sometimes I have power to my lights and radio and sometimes not. Battery is good, new starter. ????

[DOCTORBILL]

I have had this happen on several cars I've owned.

It was always the battery cable. When they get all corroded and screwed up
you may have to buy a new one! It looks connected, but crap between the
battery post and the clamp act as an insulator!

I also purchased one of those battery post dressing tools that both scrape the
battery post (a circular wire brush!) and wire brush out the lead cable clamp
on the end of the cable. Costs about $3 in any Schucks, Fred-Meyer, NAPA,
etc.

Then I slathered grease all over the lead cable end before attaching it to the
battery. The car had lots of starting power after that.

Keep all that corrosion off the battery post-cable end by adding 1/2 cup of
bicarbonate of soda (the stuff your wife keeps for cooking and she puts in the
fridge to keep odoes down) into one cup of hot tap water.

Stir it up and spoon it onto the battery connections that are corroded!

Be ready for foaming like mad! Wait and rinse with hot tap water.

Spoon more soda water and wash until all foaming stops....messy & ugly!

Once all foaming stops, sprinkle bicarb onto the battery/cable terminal and
leave it there! It stops corrosion!

The battery is constanly splashing sulfuric acid all over the top of the battery
and down into the battery holder in the engine compartment. The bicarb
neutralises the acid and keeps your metal from being eaten alive....

I actually remove the battery every year or so and "SODA" the battery holder
plate and anywhere acid might get to. Saves the car. Like washing under your arms....

If this does not help - maybe your starter solenoid is bad. Had that happen,
also....

DoctorBill

[Mike_Van]

DrBill is pointing you in the correct direction (battery)

Also have a look at the wires entering your fuse-box (under dash, to left of steering collumn). See if any of the wires are corroded near their connectors.
One of the fattest (red) wires is stranded copper and on my '96 1.0l was green with corrosion. If you find such a situation, it would be optimal to remove & replace (a royal PITA !!!)

The quality of the parts used to wire our rides leaves much to be desired...

[kaufeetime]

Don't get "SODA" in the battery water.

[DOCTORBILL]

Of course - don't get or add anything to the Battery acid except distilled water!

The following is just FYI.

Go spend $1 on a gallon of distilled water, keep it in your house and use it only
for the battery.

Do Not Use Tap Water! Tap water can contain all sorts of crap not good for
your battery's internal acidic state. May cause precipitation (insoluble stuff)
that settles to the bottom and shorts out the cell plates.

Adding such things as "additives" will only screw up the battery.

Keep the caps on the battery when adding soda to the corroded posts!
Wash off with a garden hose - with the caps on!

Used battery places obtain so-called dead batteries and shake them up and
drain the old acid along with particles of the lead plate.

Pieces of the lead plate flake off and fall to the bottom where they can short
out two plates.

If enough of this happens the battery is unusable - won't hold a charge.

By removing the crap sediment on the bottom of the battery and adding new
battery acid (obtainable in any auto store), you can probably get another
year or so out of the battery.

But then, is all that messing with 4 Molar Sulfuric Acid worth the few bucks
to you.... Probably not.

Anyway - keep everything but distilled water from entering the battery acid.

And for God's sake - check the battery fluid level every month or so!
Allowing the fluid level to fall below the plates is asking to have to buy a
new battery! It is not that difficult!

Charge the battery before adding water! If you don't, after filling and then
charging, the fluid level will be too high!

Get a small bottle with a pointed tip that squirts and fill it with Distilled water.
Like a plastic Contact Lens Cleaner Bottle or the bottles in women's hair dye
kits.
Add this water to your battery until you can see the liquid has a curved
surface in each cell...

Do you know why batteries lose POWER in the winter?

All batteries produce power by Oxidation-Reduction or the trading of electrons
between two different electodes. To do this, ions must diffuse thru the
water from one 'cell plate' to the other. Diffusion is the motion of particles
within the water.

When the acid (in water) is very cold, the particles move slowly and so the
power is lower because the ions cannot move as fast as they do in warm weather.

Simple physics, really. Diffusion is directly proportional to the temperature.

Therefore a battery's electrical power output is directly proportional to its temperature.
Normally an 18 degree Fahrenheit temp difference means a 10 fold change in rate
in Chemistry. Called the Q-10.

That is why slowly pouring a pot of boiling water over a cold car battery will help you
start your car in winter....or just turning on your lights for 1 minute gets it's internal
temperature up before cranking.


DoctorBill

[WhatThe?6]

I don't know, I seem to have a closed circuit to the starter and ignition but not the solenoid from some pie lookin metal box??