1990 Deville...

Went to start the car yesterday, and it has no power whatsoever. Not even dim lights.

Nothing was left on in the car to drain it.

I am thinking it may be my power antenna, which has recently stopped working.

Regardless, I tried to jump it (with a portable jumper, and another car), and cannot even get power to anything.

Even when I connect the jumper directly to the battery terminals, it says there is no connection. (The Everstart jumper/charger I have has an indicator on it that will tell you if you have a good connection/reversed connection/no connection when you connect the cables.)

I tested the jumper on a running car, and it works, so I ruled that out.

I am thinking maybe one or more fusable links connected to the "jump start junction box" are blown.

This is/was a new battery as well. Only about 5 months old.

Another thing I can think of is that something came loose and shorted part of the charging/ignition circuits, and drained the battery. BUT... when I connect to jumper to the car, it should tell me if there is a short.

SO... I am baffled at the moment. Please HELP!!!

Check all your cable connections for cleanliness and tightness, especially the ground wires. Check all the fuses and fusible links.

Disconnect both the positive and negative battery cables on the battery. Really clean the terminals and cable connectors good, using a wire brush.

While the cables are off the battery, connect the charger directly to the battery terminals. See if the battery begins charging. If it does not, you have a bad battery (probably an internal short in the battery) and you will have to replace it.

If the battery begins charging, let it charge up overnight and see if it has a full charge the next day. If it does not charge fully, same problem...a bad battery. Even a fairly new battery will sometimes fail, that is why batteries have a replacement warranty when you buy them.

If it does charge up to a full charge, disconnect the charger and reconnect the battery cables after coating the connectors and the terminals with a thin layer of Vaseline. Don't overtighten the connectors. Try to start the car. If the car won't turn over, you have problems elsewhere, such as some of the possibilities in the original postings.

Sometimes you can turn on your interior lights by mistake when you push in on your light switch to turn off your headlights. If there are street lights or some light source outside your car at night, the interior lights may not catch your attention.

My point is, if a fully charged battery will start your car, you have something draining the battery and it is usually lights, but can also be a short somewhere.

Good luck and post your results...

NOTE: The reason your interior lights can be turned on when you switch your headlights off is, the knob on the switch can be rotated by mistake while pushing in on it. Been there, done that.

Thanks. I'll try that. Didn't think of disconnecting the battery.

Some power packs will not jump start a totally dead battery. The reason for that is because there isnt any power in it for them to test it. Disconnect the battery and then charge it. It should work then.

Blaze

lxndrtg, I do like that avatar! :)

I'm glad you like it, Kev, my wife hates it!

I had the identical problem with my Blazer that had a one month old battery in it. Turns out the battery had a dead short internally in it. Got new replacement battery and problem was solved.

I'm glad you like it, Kev, my wife hates it!LOL! Women, will we ever figure them out? I hope not!

She says it ain't dignified, Kev. What she hasn't figured out after all these years is, I ain't either.

The battery sounds like a good candidate here, for sure. Disconnect it as described and see if the car acts differently when trying to jump it with the battery disconnected or a different battery.

The other thing to check is the ground cable connection at the chassis end. If the ground cable from the battery to the chassis is corroded or broken at the chassis end nothing will work and the battery nor jumper will jump the car. You can test for this by using a jumper cable and jump from the negative battery terminal directly to the engine/chassis....in effect putting a redundant ground connection from the negative battery terminal to the chassis. If this fixes the problem then the ground cable is broken/corroded/disconnected somewhere.

The other thing to look at is the positive cable for any signs of puffy insulation or green corrosion of the wire itself at the connection to the battery. If the positive cable is rotted away inside the insulation it will not power the car no matter what you do.

She says it ain't dignified, Kev. What she hasn't figured out after all these years is, I ain't either.There's just no accounting for taste! Personally, I think you have a winner here. It's classic! I have to say, I think it's the best avatar that I've seen on this site yet!

Don't ever change, LX, don't you change one bit!

Ok, I got the car started! Tried jumping it again this morning, but nothing. Then I disconnected the battery entirely from the car, and tried the jumper thing on it. It showed a connection, (green light). So I reconnected the battery, and put the jump start box on it, and the car fired right up.

My question is, is there some kind of power shutoff, that will not reset until the battery is disconnected?

So I am pretty sure that the battery was never fully drained.

My power antenna is not working, and I suspect that it maybe drew too much power and tripped something to shut off power? When I got it started I noticed that the motor for the antenna was very warm, almost hot... so I took the fuse for it out.

There is a relay looking thing connected to the antenna mast in the trunk. There should be a set of wires going from it to the motor. UNplug this and it wont drain no more.

Blaze

Cad90, when you disconnected/re-connected the battery you probably proved that the terminals and/or connector were not clean or were not making contact (loose connection).

If you haven't really cleaned them good yet, see my previous posting on this thread. The thin layer of Vaseline will keep air away from the connectors and terminals, avoiding corrosion. There are products available at your auto parts stores to prevent corrosion on the battery but I am old fashioned and just use Vaseline...always seem to have plenty of it around the house.

The positive connection is very corroded/rusted, and it was a little loose, but I did tighten it before trying to jump start the car the first time.

I will clean the connections though.

Thx for everyone's help with this!

Put some vaseline on the connection part of the cable and it will prevent corrosion.

Blaze