breakinloose96

Bought brand new red top optima today so not battery. Tested with multimeter on positive connection and ground on alternater and tested fine as well as the test where you leave the car running ( after it finally jumped last night) and disconnect the positive battery terminal and it stayed running so not the alternator. When turn key have all lights at normal brightness dash, dome, etc but when turn key hear what I think is the starter solenoid clicking but wont start or even turn the engine over at all. DOES THIS SOUND LIKE THE STARTER??????????????????????????????????????[:@][:@][:@]

stang2000

Take the Optima back to the store and have them test it right. I had the same thing EXACT thing happen, took it back and it was junk. they said it was very rare for them to be bad and be brand new. I couldn't beleive that a brand new battery I bought was no good, but it happens. So get it back in to the store with your receipt and get it exchanged. If

99.9999999% sure it's the battery.

breakinloose96

No it did do it before I bought the optima it started last night and I figured thats what it was so I bought the optima

02StanGT

The clicking noise is the battery doesn't have enough juice to engage the starter and turn the engine. Like said above, it's the battery.

GT_Bob

Starters have been known to ground out. The relay will still click, your lights will still go dim and you'll swear you have a bad battery. The ONLY way to know for sure is to put a load test on the battery and if that checks o.k., load test the starter.


My vote is for an intermittent ground in the starter.

stang2000

I'm going to go even further and say I'm confident 100% it's the new battery. You're old one was going out, so you got the new one, but unfortunately you got a new bad one. I thought that was ****ty that I had a perfectly good battery, bought a brand new optima for a nice upgrade and it crapped out on me before I could do anything, lol. And I mean within the same day or 2. I again just couldn't bring it to the fact that it was a bad battery.

Take it back. It's BAD, if not, then my bad, I was wrong, but what the hell. I'll stay with my 100% confidence, lol.

breakinloose96

Define load test I am new to the whole hands on thing have always just gotten f***ed w/out a kiss at shops. How do I load test the battery and the starter???????????[&:]

GT_Bob

Unless you have a load tester, you can not do it yourself.

I don't know where you are at, but if you have a Harbour Freight you can pick one up for under $100. If you get one, just follow the directions and you'll be fine. Also, if you have a battery charger with an amp indicator on it you can kind of diagnose the battery. let me know if you do and I'll explain.

breakinloose96

I have a multimeter and a jump box without a meter on it. I tested the battery with the multi before I hooked it up and it read like 12.347 volts

stang2000

Let the auto place you bought it from put it in their load tester. Whyy pay $100 for something you don't need. The auto store will test it for FREE and tell you if the battery is bad not and if it holds the load. Doesn't matter if your multimeter reads 12 now. I did the same thing and it crapped out when they loaded it up at the store. Damnit newman, TAKE IT BACK, lol