Hey everyone. Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving weekend. So, I have a 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier RS, 2.2L 4cyl, that back in Jan I couldn’t drive for about a month cause of a broken drivers side mirror that my S.O. wanted to replace cause it was her fault it broke. Not running it for that long cause it not to start. Ever since then, it’s been hit or miss if it will start on it’s own or needs a jump. Most of the time I need to use a portable jumper to get it done, sometimes it doesn’t work (mainly lately). After I get it started, I’ll run it for about 10 mins, then take it for a drive, over a mile, then back to the house to restart it and most of the time it would restart, the. I’ll try again the next day. Sometimes I can go a couple days without driving it and it will start, some days it won’t even restart after I jump it and drive it. I know it’s either the battery or the alternator (kinda holding that it’s the alternator since they are cheaper and I can replace that). I watched a thorough vid on youtube by chrisfix but havent had a chance to check all the things he said to with a voltmeter. I tried charging it with a charger I got from Autozone, but that didn’t work or at least it didn’t seem to. Any thoughts on which it sounds most likely? And if it’s the battery, any recommendations on where to look for a battery that’s not gonna be an arm and a leg? Moneys tight. Thanks for the help ahead of time. -Joe
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If the alternator goes bad, and isn’t charging the battery, the red “battery” warning light will usually come on while the engine is running. Plus, after a jump start, the battery will go flat again, and the car will stop running a few minutes after you disconnect the jumper cables. If you didn’t see that warning light, and if the car continues to run OK once it’s been jumped, the alternator is probably OK.
If a car battery goes very flat, that tends to damage the battery, so it can’t hold much of a charge in future. Plus, batteries often don’t last many years.
So it’s probably the battery. But places that sell batteries will normally test your battery and alternator for free, and it’s best to get them tested, just to be sure.