Intermittant Starting Issue - seems like battery, but it tests fine.

[NHand]

For about 6 months, I have been having this problem and recently it has gotten worse. My car just won't start - seems like the battery - we jump it and it starts fine. Battery has tested fine, Alternator has tested fine.

Here is the situation for the first time it happened to me. I was at the car wash and I kept the car on Acc. so that my kids could watch a DVD. I washed the car for maybe 10 minutes. When I got back in, it was completely dead and we needed a jump. My friend came in a Dodge Ram and it took quite a bit to gain enough charge for it to start. I didn't have anything tested after this time because I assumed I had run the battery down, but it certainly doesn't seem like it should be dead after only 10 minutes or less on acc.

Now, I just got my car back from a body shop. They told me that they had to jump it 3 times while there. I'm sure they probably had the hood up and doors open and such, so I imagine interior lights were on, but again it doesn't seem like that should have been enough to drain the battery. The body shop told me that the last time they jumped it that the battery smoked. ???

So, I had the battery tested by two places and it tested fine - the alternator also tested fine (though, I didn't feel that was the issue anyway).

I have never tested the voltage in the battery when this issue occurs.

Any ideas??

Side note - my car has issues "seeing" the Key Fob pretty regularly - could the two be linked in some way??

[Pops]

It's most likely the battery, just replace it... FWIW, I picked up the one from Wal-Mart back in '06 I think, it has a free unconditional replacement for 3 yrs, the reason I got it is because Wal-Mart is nationwide and easy to find a 24/7 store. The battery NEVER lasts even 2yrs, I think I had one last 2-yrs to the day, so anytime mine starts acting up, I just pull into Wal-mart pull my little open-wrench set out of the back, pop the hood, pull it out, carry it inside, swap it, then install the new one. I'm usually done and back on the road in 20-mins tops and it saves all the headache you're going through.

[NHand]

That is exactly what I thought, so I took it back to the place where I replaced the battery 1.5 years ago (O'reilly Auto Parts) - they tested it and said it was fine. I then took it to Auto Zone and had them test it too, and they also said it was fine. Not sure that they will replace a battery under their replacement warranty if the tester says that it is a good battery...

[9balllrook]

if there is a bad cell the test will show the battery is fine. You need to do a load test, or for piece of mind, just replace the battery. Make sure there is no corrosion on the terminals as well.

[Pops]

Drivers Cig Lighter stays Hot, if you have anything plugged into it your battery will run dead. Otherwise I wouldn't let $75 stop me from fixing my problem if I were in that situation. I've had bad batteries test as good so I avoid shopping at places that replace Common Sense with an Electronic Testing Device.

[rsoto80]

It could be a corroded negative battery cable.