Dead VX, Seems Electrical

Okay... yesterday I drove my VX home from work. When I started it, it started right up and I drove home and parked it.

Later that evening (4-5 hours later) I went out to the VX and tried to start it up to leave. The dome light was dim and it didn't even roll over. I left it because I had to be somewhere.

Tonight, we tried to jump it off of my wife's car and all we got was this rapid clicking sound. Dead starter?

The battery terminals were pretty corroded, but cleaned them and no dice.

When you try to start it w/ no jump vehicle connected, I'll get some noise through my hands-free cell phone kit and the lights will blink in time with the clicking of the starter. The dome light also dims and then eventually returns to normal after you stop trying to start it.

I'm thinking a ****-canned starter killed my battery. Thoughts?

How hard is the starter on the VX to replace?

jb.

Now I'm thinking it might be the battery. The voltage across the terminals in the battery is 12.97v as measured with my digital multimeter. Normal is 12.7 right and higher than that indicates a sulphated battery.

I've read that a bad battery can keep the starter from getting enough juice during a jump start.

Am I on the right track?

jb.

If you have an autozone or NAPA near you they will test the battery for free. It could be a lot of things.

-- John

Kick it !!!!!!!!!!!

hey jb...

A bad battery (fully drained) will not have enough juice to turn over the starter. The clicking noise is typical when it is in this state. I doubt that your starter is affected. Corroded terminals are a sign of drainage usually from a small drain like a dome light left on or a radio/electrical connection touching ground when the vehicle is off. After a few days, the battery becomes drained to the point that it struggles to turn over and eventually not start.

I've noticed that the stock original battery does not last more than 2 years max and it may be that time for you to get a new replacement. Even if you had the battery jumped to start the engine, it will eventually drain out and won't crank on your next start attempt.. When a battery gets to this level, it may not take a charge again and becomes unsalvageable.

There are places like Kragen Auto who will credit you $10 or $20 towards the purchase of a new battery when you trade in your old one. You also may want to consider other batteries like the yellow or red top (depending on your needs) Optima batteries. Several members here have them and swear by them. Hope this helps.

my charging system is not right...it never has been...it does not charge the stock battery enough to play just the stock radio for 2 hours.
Isuzu says they will charge me to check it.

jbregar,
The battery is definitely suspect. Mine went out a few months ago and had very similar attributes. It does seem a little strange that you could not start with a jump, but I would still check the battery first. I purchased an over-rated size Die-Hard battery from Sears for around $70, and it works great and has a 3-year warranty. I can get the model number if you are interested. Hope this helps.
Neal

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my charging system is not right...it never has been...it does not charge the stock battery enough to play just the stock radio for 2 hours.
Isuzu says they will charge me to check it.

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Any autozone or advance auto will check your alternator for free, they don't even need to take it out of the car. AA troubleshot the dead alternator in my trooper pretty spot-on. It sounds like you may have a drain and IIRC you have lots of "aftermarket" lighting on your vehicle. Might be worth it to just get that piece of mind. I know I'll never install another amp in any of my vehicles without an inline power switch after the headaches I went through with the trooper.

It def sounds like a bat, I did the same thing while back.. :freek: I threw a computer in my truck, and it finally killed the bat. I left it on for a little bit since having faith in the inverter which has a proven auto-shutdown that detects the voltage too low, it's worked before but I think my bat was already going and I've read that inverters play hell them. I went to jump it and got a fast clicking noise like what you got, it's because your not cranking enough amps. Your going to have to sit there with the cables hooked up for a few minutes to replenish the juice.

Def Check to see if there's any liquid in the bat and look for the crap around the terminals like what other folks have posted; they go dry if they're bad and I think distilled water might help give it life for a little longer if it is. You can clean the bat with baking soda and there are these terminal cleaning kits that come with a cap to scrape down the metal. Also look for these lil spongy rings that go on before you reconnect the bat, they draw the acid before it reaches your connection. Lastly, add some trust vasoline in there, it should please the electrical system.

my alternator is a 160 amp one. the stock one is I believe a 90 amp one.
I have the juice from alternator running to a 200 amp battery isolator which charges both batteries(RedTop & Yellowtop) as needed...but the Red Top (starting) is running through the stock cables and charging system.
The YellowTop is running the Winch and the Car amp and never has anyproblems. Both batteries are only less than a year of life.
I used to only get 2-4 hours of stock stereo play, but now I can let it play for about 7-8 hours before it dies.