Alternator & Battery new but still won't start

[cavette]

Alternator is less than two years old. Battery is two months old.

Car won't start (won't crank). Jumped it last night at work and then drove home and now won't start in the morning. There is no juice in the battery because lights won't turn on either. So it is not a starter motor issue for sure.

Will take it to a shop to diagnose, but anyone care to guess what could be most likely to be faulty?

[az3579]

Ignition switch.

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[cavette]

But the problem seems to be either my battery is defective and not holding charge, or alternatively, it is not getting charged. Or maybe I have a wiring issue (bad connection)?

[az3579]

But the problem seems to be either my battery is defective and not holding charge, or alternatively, it is not getting charged. Or maybe I have a wiring issue (bad connection)?

If no lights at all come on when you put it into position 2, it might not be detecting that the key is in that position. If you think your battery is defective, here's a quick test. Try to turn on your interior lights using the map light buttons, or press the odometer reset button in your cluster to see if the display turns on. This will at least tell you if your battery is supplying any juice at all, as these functions do not require the key to even be in the ignition to function. If these work, and nothing happens when you turn your key in the ignition (no dash lights), then your ignition switch is probably bad.

When you said lights won't turn on, are you talking about the instrument cluster lights or the interior lights? I guess this needed more clarification before I suggested what I did; thought you were talking about dash lights.

[Newjack]

If no lights at all come on when you put it into position 2, it might not be detecting that the key is in that position. If you think your battery is defective, here's a quick test. Try to turn on your interior lights using the map light buttons, or press the odometer reset button in your cluster to see if the display turns on. This will at least tell you if your battery is supplying any juice at all, as these functions do not require the key to even be in the ignition to function. If these work, and nothing happens when you turn your key in the ignition (no dash lights), then your ignition switch is probably bad.

When you said lights won't turn on, are you talking about the instrument cluster lights or the interior lights? I guess this needed more clarification before I suggested what I did; thought you were talking about dash lights.

If the starter were bad the car would still crank right? You would hear it cranking but the starter would never engage?

[az3579]

If the starter were bad the car would still crank right? You would hear it cranking but the starter would never engage?

Possibly, or if it failed electrically it might not crank at all. Usually they will try to crank but never successfully do so.

[cavette]

The interior lights wouldn't come on, so I figure there is absolutely no juice in the battery at all, or the juice is not getting to the car.

So I guess it is:

(1) Some wiring fault; or
(2) Alternator is failing to charge the battery at all; or
(3) The battery (even tho new) is defective and not able to recharge itself.

Any other possibilities given my symptoms above?

[az3579]

The interior lights wouldn't come on, so I figure there is absolutely no juice in the battery at all, or the juice is not getting to the car.

So I guess it is:

(1) Some wiring fault; or
(2) Alternator is failing to charge the battery at all; or
(3) The battery (even tho new) is defective and not able to recharge itself.

Any other possibilities given my symptoms above?

If you jump it, the car starts and runs fine? Does it continue to run after you jump it? You said it jumped fine before - does it now? If it jumps and runs indefinitely until you shut it off, I would say your battery is probably toast. If the alternator was shot, the car couldn't run very long after jumping, if at all, since it would have to run exclusively off the battery. With a flat battery, that wouldn't happen..

If the car doesn't run very long after being jumped, I would say the alternator is probably shot.