[brouhaha]

I go to a restaurant one day an hour before work to grab my food and come back to my car and it won't start. Got my brother to take me to work while he went to get me a new battery. So it runs fine all weekend until Sunday after I get off work. I go inside for about 4 hours and see that my brake lights are still on. I go to start the car and it won't even try to start. So I check where the brake pedal is and see that the piece had broken off that's suppose to turn the lights off. My boss helps me do a quick fix with JB Weld and a small square piece of metal to fill in the hole that is there. I borrow his jumper pack for the week so that I can get to work and back until my brother was able to help me look at the alternator. Of course it's not easy to get off. We had to take the axle out and everything just to get the damn alternator out. We get it out and take it to Advanced Auto to get it tested and they said it was fine. My brother still thought it was the alternator. We get back to my house and put the alternator back on and the car is still not starting. So we gave up because he had to go home. The next day I get my boss to take me back to Wal-Mart to get a replacement battery because at this point I didn't know what the problem with the car was. Get home and put the new battery in and the car works from Friday to tonight when I found out that it's not starting again. It worked fine most of the day and had a few slow starts, but still cranked up. Now it won't do anything, so I have no idea what to do. As complicated of a mess as it is I should have taken it to the shop in the first place to get it diagnosed, but I didn't think it would have been this complicated. Going to try and get it troubleshooted tomorrow, but does anyone have any suggestions on what the problem is?

[DelSolSweetie]

have you checked your battery cables

[cmgogo]

okay heres a quick way to see if its the alternator,

1. start car
2. disconnect battery
3. if car dies alternator is shot
4. if car runs alternator is probably okay

to be honest the jack asses at VATOzone dont know their a$ses from a hole in the ground
For instance
Went to get 2 stroke oil for my friends outboard motor.
Couldn't find any
Asked the sales rep who was stocking the oil if they had any 2 stroke for an outboard motor
and I quote "You can just use 10-30, just make sure the oil tank is full on the motor."

For those of you who dont boat, or know how a 2 stroke works
There is no oil tank. 2 cycle oil is mixed into the fuel, not into an oil tank.

I went to have a battery tested at VATOzone about 6 months ago, and they put it on the machine
Tested good, CCA, Voltage all within spec
Pulled alt and had them test it, again tested good, all within spec.

For sh!ts and giggles i tested voltage on the battery with my multimeter, 11.1v.

Ordered a ring and gasket kit for a z6
told me it would be delivered in 2 days.
As expected it arrived, and the total was 697.55.
WHAT!?!?!?!
Yes, they ordered pistons and rods as well.
So I told them I didnt need the boxes with the pistons and rods, and to take them off the order and just sell me the rings and gasket kit separately.
The dumba$s couldnt fgure out how to do it, waited for 30 minutes, then said fk it and went to NAPA.
Havent gone back since for anything of consequence. Ill buy carwash soap, purple power, fuses, etc, but nothing major... EVER.

oh and advanced auto is just as good as VATOzone.

This post has been edited by cmgogo: 30 June 2010 - 01:24 PM

[DelSolSweetie]

cmgogo, on 30 June 2010 - 12:45 AM, said:

to be honest the jack asses at VATOzone dont know their a$ses from a hole in the ground

soo true

i only go to o'reileys here cause ive known the guys for a while

[brouhaha]

Thanks for all the help, but it was something you would have never thought of. My car has automatic seat belts and they are suppose to cut off 5 minutes after the car turns off and it wasn't cutting off, so it was draining my battery. It was $60 to get it diagnosed and worth it because I've spent almost 3 weeks thinking it was the alternator (thank god it wasn't because that is a nightmare to get out), the battery or some other wiring problem. I learn something new everyday.

[DelSolSweetie]

i didnt think it was the alternator.. when alternators died on me in the past they always went out while driving and gauges went screwy first and lights didnt work right etc... but i agree that getting an alternator checked at autozone doesnt do much lol





happy you got it fixed!

[brouhaha]

Well I haven't exactly got it fixed yet, but I will soon. At the moment I have the seat belt switch unplugged until I get the part. I got it to where it's stuck to where I can pull it over my chest and it doesn't come down which I wish it was like that anyways because I always get smacked by it. Did your Del Sol come with a/c? I know I had a '95 when I was 16 and it didn't come with it. I mounted a fan on my passenger side visor because I hated taking off the hard top.

This post has been edited by brouhaha: 01 July 2010 - 09:16 PM

[DelSolSweetie]

It came with it.. previous owners took it out cause they are dumb and didnt realize it was MABYE 20 lbs and could have just taken the belt off if they really thought it would add power (it didnt)

I have the stuff to put it on but havent had a chance.. i'm all over SC this summer.. and soon to be making trips to NC and Atlanta this month


I love the targa but dont have it off much (1) because the sun here can be brutal and in traffic it sucks pretty bad if the top if off and (2) we get massive afternoon thunderstorms out of no where

im sure you can understand depending on where you are in NC lol

This post has been edited by DelSolSweetie: 01 July 2010 - 09:38 PM

[brouhaha]

I just retrofitted my a/c about 3 months ago and I now know what it feels like to have cool air. It's still hot as hell here though! The Targa is nice, but like you said the sun is brutal and there is almost no room for anything to go in your trunk when you put it in there. I live in Charlotte. I know all about the thunderstorms, but we haven't had many as of late. What are you travelling to NC and GA for?

This post has been edited by brouhaha: 01 July 2010 - 10:12 PM

[DelSolSweetie]

Going to Zmax on the 10th for this :
http://www.streetwisedrift.com/


then atlanta is the nopi/hin show at the end of the month