NathanE

Over the past month, there have been a few times my car has randomly not started. Twice after sitting overnight, and once after sitting in a parking lot for about an hour.

What happens is it will sound like it's about to start, for maybe half a second, then it just starts clicking.

(After trying, the battery will completely die directly after)


Sometimes I will be fine for a couple days, sometimes for over a week. Then randomly it just won't start.




Another issue I'm having is that whenever I start the car, the CD changer cycles through, and sounds like something is grinding inside of it. It does this for about 30 seconds then stops - And also does this about 5 - 15 minutes after turning off the car. (Not sure if this is related to the car not stopping.. maybe it's draining the battery?)



Any help would be greatly appreciated

NathanE

*bump* anyone?

SyNdicateZ

Check ur battery terminal connections....I had similar issues and turned out my negative terminal connection was corroded.. Did I spell that right?

dklistul

Yup. Battery connections would be my first stop, too.

wayne613

S197's have some serious electrical weaknesses. OEM battery, alternator, head-unit.

Of course as already suggested, do any clean up work that looks relevant on the grounds or even the positive terminal if you notice any corrosion.

After that, it's likely your battery is now on the way out, most likely from the shaker head-unit screwing you earlier, and you not getting a long enough drive cycle in after to remedy the deep discharge.

https://mustangforums.com/mustang-ts...TED-USAGE.html

The shuffling you're hearing is just the surface of the pond rippling. Likely it's drawing 150mA+ constantly, and killing your battery when the car is off. Many have gone through multiple "shaker" head units to resolve the parasitic drain issue. The only permanent solution usually being to replace with an after-market unit.


See this thread if you still have problems:
https://mustangforums.com/forum/2005...ery-drain.html

Quake Guy

Was there ever a solution to random no start condition? The few instances I can find online, nobody ever has a solution. Maybe they all got frustrated and traded them in and/or set them on fire...

Unhooking the negative battery cable or unplugging the starter relay usually lets me restart the car. However, sometimes I can do one of the two actions and never get it to start. But as soon as I do the other, I am good to go. And then its vice versa...

I have cleaned all battery connections, checked the grounds and connections at starter, replaced alternator, replaced battery and swapped the above relay with an identical one in the car.

I don't think there is a PATS issue as the light is flashing as per normal behavior.

Could it be solenoid and/or starter?

cruisin5268d

Two year old thread....shoulda started a new one if you want more people to respond.