RemoGaggi

I've had an intermittent starting problem and my 2006 V6 Mustang (75K miles). Twice last week the car would not start (no cranking, but dash light up). After several tries, it started. This happened 2 days in the row and both days I got the car to start eventually. I figure its the battery or starter. The battery is 1.5yrs old from Autozone (AZ). I clean the terminals and the car starts fine for the next 3 days. Starts everytime for 3 days and then this morning, it doesn't want to start. After several times, I the car starts and I drive it straight to the dealer figuring the starter is bad. Dealer mechanic says the battery failed the battery testing and tells me that I can either buy a new battery from them, but suggests I try to get a replacement from Autozone first as the battery is not that old. I pick up the battery from the dealer and take it to Autozone where they test it and it tests fine. The guy at AZ says the battery fine and it's 100% charged. This contradicts what the dealer said. After a little nudging, AZ does the right thing and give me a free replacement battery anyway.

I take it back to the dealer and they just called and said the starter was fine and they believe it was just the battery was bad.

Now my question. Can someone explain how the dealer mechanic's test would yield different results than AZ? I'm guessing the dealer must use some kind of load tester, while the tester at AZ looked like some kind of multimeter where they punch in the CCA number.

The interesting thing here is that the dealer didn't try to screw me by saying the starter was bad and then doing the work. In fact, they didn't really even try hard to sell me a battery. It was their suggestion to try to get an new one from AZ.

Any ideas how the battery testing can be different?

obxdude018

It's hard to say, difference in equipment is less likely to believe, maybe one just knowing what to do and the other not knowing what to do, did you get to see any of the results typically you can get a print out of the load test.

RemoGaggi

I didn't see the results from the dealer. He just told me that they did 2 different tests on the battery and it failed both times. The guy at autozone connected his tester on the battery, punched in the CCA number and then told me it was 100%. It took him about 10 seconds to test it. Does that sound right?

Nuke

Unless your starter has a burn spot on the winding which would prevent it from cranking if it stopped in a particular part of it's rotation, it's NOT starter related. Did either the dealer or Autozone have the brains to also load test your alternator?