Ok I go out to my car this morning to go mail some packages and it wont start. I didnt leave anything on or anything! I hook the charger up on 10amp for 6hrs and then go back out to my car and it still wont start. It has battery power but only holds it with the key on for like 10 sec. You can hear the fuel pump kick on and then the car'* battery power just goes out. It tries to turn over but just can't start. I drove our 3/4 ton chevy over to it and jump started it finally after 4 tries and 5min and it just wouldnt run right! I finally got it into reverse and pulled out and had to keep the car at like 1100 rpm to keep it running. I got it goin down the raod and it ran fine. Drove the car for like 5min and then returned home and shut it off to see if it would start back up. I got it to turn over and all but it started to start and then died like 5 times and then was out of battery power. In the times it tried to run it backfired when it died. I have no clue what the problem is but it seems it is something stealing power from the battery and I think it'* fuel related because of the backfiring and not holding an idle or running good. FUEL PUMP????? and when you know it I just put in my grille mesh and made my custom intake cover, and put on my new glasspack and tip. wtf???

It does sound like a bad battery.

Your battery cells are so eroded, it'll only hold a surface charge.

does by any chance your charge light come on?

My charge light doesnt come on but you can tell there is no voltage. I can jump start the car and drive around for a bit and then shut it off and it will start back up, but when I let it sit for an hour or in my case this morning over night it wont start. So something is either stealing power while it is off or something is f'ed up. I have another battery but it top post and the one in my car is side post :?

1) Yank the battery and have it load-tested after charging. Either your battery is bad _or_ your alternator is not recharging it properly. (Bonnevilles eat their alternators for breakfast; mine is on #4.) Don't buy a new battery until you know that your old one really can't hold a charge, because there'* a good chance that your problem will turn out to be your alternator, not your battery.

2) Check your cables, especially the underside of the contact rings in the terminals (you have to work the center bolt out of each terminal to see it) and the solenoid and ground connections (where the cables go to). Clean as required and wipe on coating of Vaseline.

Was happening to my 92 SSE three months ago. If it sat more than two hours, it wouldn't start. New battery solved all my problems.

I've never had to replace an alternator. I dont know if this has something to do with it but I have an AC delco battery.

Oh, and I replaced the alternator five monthes before that. The batt and alt were both put on new the day before I bought it in June 2000.

Hmm... Doesn't matter now, but I think I would have just replaced the alternator and then waited to see if the existing battery would recover after that. They usually wouldn't both die at once.

As for load-testing the old battery, any auto place will do that for free; might as well take advantage of it. If they say it'* taking the charge and is not completely weak in the knees (it won't be as good as a brand new battery, of course, but after charging, the load test should be useful), then bring in the alternator and have that tested for output.

One of those two components is probably bad; you just need to determine which it is. Pulling the alternator isn't much harder than pulling the battery.