blackboy

I have been having a problem with my wife's 94 968' for the last couple of months. At the beginning, after she starts it and goes about doing her errands, after the first or second short stop the car refused to start. Once she let it cool down it would start up. I knew the car was having starter issues so I changed the starter and the starter symptom went away but the dead battery symptom after a few short runs persisted. On Monday I took the car out and initially it was hard to start as it had sat in the driveway for about a week. Drove it around on my errands, no real short stops and it restarted 2 more times for me with no problems. When I got home I checked the battery with a digital volt meter and across the terminals I got 12.58 volts. The next day before starting the car after it sat all night in mid 30's temp. I checked the battery again with the volt meter and got a reading of 12.38 volts. It started a little slowly so I let it idle for about 10 minutes. My wife took it out again on some errands and after the first stop which was about 15 minutes from home, when she came out of the store about 45 minutes later it would not start at all. She called me and I went to give her a jump and exchange cars with her. Before I jumped the battery I checked it with the voltmeter and it read 12.25 volts. I had to let the car sit for about 3-4 minutes with the battery cables attached to my battery before it would start. It seems to me that this is a battery issue and not something that is draining the battery. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Sorry for the long post.

odurandina

your volt meter isn't telling the whole story.. i don't think the problem is your starter.

if an older starter starts dying out with a hot engine, and it's making a horrifically loud whooosh sound, then it's the starter.

put the battery on your charger for a few hours.... next, drive around for 20 minutes.... bring back to your driveway and get the battery back on the charger immediately. don't try to start the car.... put it on the quick charge (high amp) for 10 minutes (or time interval that your wife had between shutting off the car and the unsuccessful start). now disconnect from the charger and try to start the car.....

if it gives you no problems, you've eliminated the starter.

now you can repeat the test after replacing it with a new interstate battery and bringing it to full charge.... now you need to take the car on a longer trip of an hour or more... unfortunately, if the problem is your alternator, it may take considerably longer to kill the battery... in any case, after a long drive, shut the car off in the driveway and after about 10 minutes try to start it again.

if the problem starting the car comes back, 90 % chance it's your alternator.

blackboy

Just out of curiosity I went out this morning and checked the battery and got the same 12.38 volts at the terminals, put the key in the ignition and it started right up.