So a week ago my car wasn't turning over, all signs pointed to dead battery. I kept jumping it with one of those portable jumpers until I could get it changed.

Took it to Autozone and they checked the Optima battery I had in it (for 7 yrs) and it was dead. I had them put in a Duralast and all was good. Car would start but seemed like a little hesitation. I thought nothing of it.

It started up this morning and got me to work. Tried going out for lunch in it, and got nothing. No door locks, no lights, no dash lighting up, NOTHING.

Could it be:
1) Bad battery
2) Dead battery from bad alternator
3) Starter? But wouldn't I still have the accessories?
4) Ignition switch?
5) Immobilizer?
6) Other?

THANKS!

 

If you have no lights or accessories, sounds like a bad (edit: dead) battery to me.

Question: Has your hands free link for your phone worked before this or is it not working?

 

I'm a bit disappointed you've been here since 2004 and didn't search before posting. Most likely due to your hand free link unit causing a draw in the system and draining the battery while the car is off. You can unplug the unit which is located in the over head console which has the map lights and sun roof switch. There are nurmous threads about this topic and if you wanted to "Bake" the circuit board and see if that fixes the unit. I did attempt it on my unit but It didn't work. They have revised the part numbers on the old hands free unit and is now 700 bucks instead of 140

 

To be fair to the OP, we don't know if his HFL is dead or not.... which is why I asked.

 

Bad ground.

One of my coworkers and I jumped it and I borrowed a volt meter from the lab to see if the alternator was producing. It registered 13.74v across the terminals.

When my coworker was wrapping up his cables I decided to shut it off and start it again. It clicked but no start. Tried turning the key again and back to square one, nothing. Not anything.

Coworker was wrapping up his cables when I tried starting it the first time after the jump and he saw out of the corner of his eye a spark near the battery. We tried replicating it by jumping it again, and this time he saw where it was coming from. Right where the ground mounts to the frame. If you look at that washer with the hook, it's suppose to rest in a hole in the frame, well it was rotated out and resting on painted frame. Fortunately I had my socket set and I corrected the issue. Starts up no problem now. So with the jumper cables we were actually completing the circuit since he was connecting the negative to my frame so my car had a good ground at that point. Would have had a hell of a time fixing this if my coworker wasn't there to see that spark.

Now did the guy at Autozone do this on purpose when I got the new battery hoping I'd be back to purchase an alternator? Or was it on accident? I don't really care, glad it was an easy fix and I don't have to change the alternator.

BTW, after reading about the HFL I did notice it says "Booting up" and my Bluetooth doesn't work. But it hasn't worked for 2 years now and I've had no battery issues in those 2 years till now. So thanks, I will disconnect that, but it wasn't the problem.

 

Post a picture of the harness in question.

 

i had the same problem the battery was good but old found out after opening the hood there was acid build on the inside of the positive and the negative side just disconnect the sides and clean them with something available to you as i cleaned them with a pocket knife.