fearthisinc

Ok. So I had the guys over at Best Buy hook up a system in the Camaro along with some other minor things... Anyway as they were working on the Camaro they must have had the system going without the car on so the battery was completely dead.. I hooked up a spare battery I had laying around plus a jump box and all we got was a 2 second crank and then a grinding noise.. Anyone have any idea what might be wrong? The guys tried saying it might have been something already wrong with the car and I told them right there to cut the B.S. cuz the car was running perfect before being brought in to them.. So again when you go to start the engine it has a couple of seconds where it soundsl ike it is going to crank and then it stops and you get a grinding noise..

1983Zsled

If it wasn't broke before you took it there it very well could have been something they did. Could be any number of issues;
grounding problem or possibly a short circuit?
With two batteries hooked in series it should have more than enough amps to crank the starter if it is hooked up right.
The starter solinoid could be shot or grounding.
Try to isolate each.
Find out where these guys got their 12volts from. Trace the wires from the system and see if they are hooked up right.
If you are not comfortable with any of this take it to an electronic specialist.

Hope this helps......

Trick414

Jump it off from a running vehicle.

It just sounds like they killed the first battery. That's pretty normal with any battery that isn't fairly new. I've done it a million times installing aftermarket equipment in cars.

Unfortunately, if the battery isn't newer than say, two or three years, it's probably toast. It will jump off a running vehicle, but may not be serviceable over the next few days/months. It's a crap-shoot.

If you car starts up with a running vehicle jump, you can try to drive it a few days and see if the battery comes back to life. If not, go buy a new battery and call it a day. Yeah, they "killed" it by running equipment and draining it down, but a new battery should recover whereas an older battery on its way out might not. So, again, just get a new one and you won't have to worry.

The jump boxes only work really well on newish batteries that can "take" a charge. An older battery might not take the charge and many jump boxes don't have the juice to start a car all by itself.

fearthisinc

Well the battery that was in there was only about 1 month old. I just put that battery in there. On top of that we tried jumping it. With a car, another new battery, jump box, and then a combination of jump box and running car. Nothing got the car to turn over. It sounds like it will turn over, like you get 1 push and then it stops and you get a grinding noise. For example if you have ever had a dead battery or a low low battery and it goes to turn over sometimes it makes a slow noise that gets faster and then it turns over.. Well i get one seconde of that slow noise and then a grinding noise.

Trick414

Hmm, based on what they were doing, then, the only possibilities are a bad ground or the starter took a dump coincidently at the same time.

Although, it just sounds like a weak battery or bad ground.

Did you give the battery about 10 minutes to charge while connected to the running vehicle? I've probably jumped several hundred cars over the years, and I usually give them at least 10 minutes to charge so the dead battery (or even a "new" battery - they are usually weak from the store) isn't draining the running vehicle battery as well as trying to start the car.

Failing that, check your main wires from the battery to the alternator/starter and ground. I'm sure they unhooked one of them while working on the car. Make sure the connections are tight and clean.

NINÅ