The car is a 99 GTS. It has been the best car one could ask for. I have owned the car since 2000 and it has never left me stranded or needed service other that three majors. The car has been sitting for three weeks not on a tender. I started it today and pulled it onto the driveway. I let it idle for about five minutes. While I was in the house, I heard the motor shut down. When I turned the key, nothing came on. No electrics whatsoever. I pushed it into the garage and placed it back on the tender. When the key is in position, there is a clicking noise coming fromwhat weems like the rear of the car and under the dash. I am thinking a ccompletely fried battery. Any aditional thoughts?
My first thought would be the alternator, not battery. The car may have drained the battery while idleing because the alternator wasn't charging it. Now the battery may be too dead to get enough power to the starter for it to turn at all, hence the clicking. Also supported by no electronics coming on. Charge the batter overnight and see if it starts the next day.
Check your connections. Then charge the battery. Then test the voltage output of the alternator. If the alt is putting out good voltage, then have your battery load tested.
The alternator is not charging the battery at idle. The idling probably completely drained your battery. As already mentioned, check connections, charge battery and start her right up... Kai
In 5 minutes? I don't think a battery would have enough juice to start a car and then die in 5 minutes at idle, even with every single electrical accessory on the car turned on. I'd be more inclined to think you have a lose connection at the battery or something like that. It could be an internal short in the battery, they do all kinds of weird things when that happens.
I charged the battery overnight with a Baterry Tender. It did not go to a full charge. I'll take the battery out this morning and have it tested. This will give me a chance to check the cables as well. I'm leaning towards a short in the battery.
Epic answer How old is the battery? Little used and untended batteries can fade pretty quickly. Seems odd that it would start the car and run for 5 minutes and then shut down.
I have to respectfully disagree. Batteries die in very strange ways. If it was a little short of fluid, the plates can warp, touch, and thus fry. If the OP hasn't ever replaced the battery, which from his OP it sounds like he hasn't, it may very well have been dry. (I've owned at least a dozen British cars, so I know all about the myriad ways batteries die!) But as you and our learned F-chatters above have suggested, it does sound like it might just be a corroded battery post, or some other connection.
I have designed and built many electric cars including an open wheel electric racecar. I have seen batteries do some really strange things. They can go from perfect to junk in seconds. So nothing surprises me when it comes to batteries. It can still be a bad connection as well. But charging and load testing the battery is a good start.
I was disagreeing that it was an alternator issue, not that it couldn't be the battery (as I suggested in my post).
Sorry, didn't get that. I thought you were disagreeing that the battery would die so quickly, in response to the OP, then suggesting an alternate diagnosis. My bad.
Some closure: For those of you that diagnosed this as a battery. You were absolutely correct. It does seem odd that the car would start and die in the next ten minutes. The battery must have shorted while it was running. I always thought that a car would run on alternator without a battery. Regardless, this has been the most reliable car that one could ask for. I couldn't think that it would have a problem at this stage in our relationship. The battery was more than eight years old. Thanks for the advice.
Alternator needs the battery to work. It needs the battery to build the electromagnetic field in the windings. I am glad to hear that you are back up and running.
You can run a car without battery (that's why you can jump start pedal clutch cars when the battery is dead). But at idle the alternator does not generate enough current. Read somewhere that you need to have RPM above 1600 or so to actually charge the battery. Glad you got it taken care off. Kai
Actually, it depends on whether or not the alternator is self exciting or not. If not, you need the battery to build the field to start making current. If the alt has magnets to make an initial field then you can start making current with rpm. Usually when the battery is dead and you push start it, the battery is too low to crank the starter but still has enough voltage left to build the field the make current.
Batteries are funny things. Over the winter, my battery stopped taking a charge on the tender, and was struggling to turn over the motor. Battery was 5+ years old, and a new battery fixed the problem. When I took the old battery into the store for replacement, they put it on the tester and said it was still good. No idea why... Anyway, glad this problem was sorted easily. - Eric
