92 Ford taurus

Asked by Babyblue1 Mar 01, 2017 at 02:41 PM

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I'm pretty sure that my battery was
fine it was great and then my motor
mount  came off and a cable was
attached to my engine not by me and
after it was removed now my battery
will not hold a charge car will not turn
over it doesn't even click so I'm not
sure where I should start to look for
the problem I also had to he might
ignition because the kids were
temporarily lost but before that I
started it was a jump box thinking okay
no problem it will start again and so I
turned it off and when I went to start it
again there was nothing no click no
sound no turn over no dash lights no
dome light not even the clock where
should I start looking for the problem

3 Answers

101,485

You need to go through the battery harness and ensure everything is connected, pay attention to electrical grounds - those may look like straps connecting engine to chassis, in addition to negative (the black) cable harness. A voltage drop test to the starter will verify if starter is properly connected. To verify if battery is good, take it to any auto parts place for a test, even if you have to pull it from vehicle and carry it up there in another car. If it's not fully charged they will need to keep it for a few hours or even overnight to charge it then they can test it. If you can drive the car, they can then test both battery and alternator. Overall though, it sounds like you are missing one or more electrical connections.

Ok, great !!! Good start ! The electric connect sounds like what I'm looking at, cuz of the way it just stopped,after the cable was cuz free. The idiot that had it put on in the first place it was strapped around my system manifold - wiring harness thingy. Is there any other specific electrical connection that I should check for other than what you spoke of. I'm definitely not a Car Guru I can do basic maintenance change my oil check for all my fluids and listen and notice when something sounds different or funny however I'm 5 months pregnant by myself and my car obviously LOL is not working. Regardless I'm not afraid to Jack this thing up get under there and get my hands dirty. Nevertheless I have a healthy respect for electricity and would like to avoid being Zapped LOL.

101,485

Well first try a jump start or put a jump pack on it, and see if you get power to the car - that will let you know if the problem is just a dead battery. If the battery was shorted it may have died, and old batteries also lose cells, making them useless even when jumped. If you hook up jumpers and still have no power, then you likely have a bad connection somewhere, most likely with the battery or starter, that might be a ground connection. You can get a brief understanding of the battery harness here: http://repairpal.com/negative-battery-cable - you can also try a voltage drop test to the starter, which will let you know if you have a good connection there. If someone removed a chassis ground from the block, then they are creating an interruption in the charging circuit which may be why you have no power anywhere.

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