I ask this here because I value the opinions posted on this forum. My wife's 98 Ford Escort (gasp) starts intermittantly. It was stored in a heated garage for a short time with and I put a battery tender to it every couple of weeks or so. The terminal began to corrode heavily. I checked juice at the battery and had 12V+. At that time it was giving me probs starting so I replaced the terminal ends and found that one was cracked/broke. Problem solved so I thought. She ran it again today and it started fine this morn. It failed to start after she stopped at the bank. It just clicked. I checked V again and was getting 12V+. When we jumped it, it started right up. I checked V again while running and got 13V+.
So the charging system is working. Do I assume that the battery is bad (original) and replace? Does the heavy corrosion at the terminals indicate a bad battery?
Because I am getting 12V+ doesn't mean the battery is delivering the full CCA?
Starter maybe?

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'85 300SD (formerly california emissions)
'08 Chevy Tahoe
'93 Ducati 900 SS
'79 Kawasaki KZ 650
'86 Kawasaki KX 250
'88 Kawasaki KDX200
'71 Hodaka Ace 100
'72 Triumph T100R

Heavy corrosion is not an indicator of a bad battery (unless your battery post is so heavily corroded that it is almosted corroded into just below the battery case!). You need to keep some vasoline on the posts and terminals to seal it away from the air to prevent this.

If you are getting better than 13.5 VDC at the battery terminals when the engine is running, then chances are pretty good that your charging system is ok.

Take your terminal connectors off. Clean them good and also clean the battery posts. Put the connectors back on and make sure they are tight.

My bet is your battery is bad. If you don't have the tools to full load test it, you can take it to an AutoZone (or similar) and most will test them free for you. That is the only way to tell for sure.

Does it crank at all when it won't start? Or does the starter just not spin at all? You might also have a bad starter solenoid. I have had a couple of Fords that had bad starter solenoids... If the idoit lights all light up but the starter does not crank with the key in the start position, this would be my first assumption (or, possibly, a bad spot in the starter). You can try jumping the starter solenoid with a screwdriver (just use one with a thick plastic or rubber handle!) next time this happens to see if that indeed does the trick.

Chris

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1992 300D 2.5T
1980 Euro 300D (sadly, sold)
1998 Jetta TDI, 132K "Rudy"
1974 Triumph TR6
1999 Saab 9-5 wagon (wife's)

Doh! Just re-read the post and see that you said it "just clicked." So apparently the solenoind is doing its job. In that case I'd agree it's probably just the battery going south. The cells might be shorting... I've had that happen too.

Good luck!

Chris

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1992 300D 2.5T
1980 Euro 300D (sadly, sold)
1998 Jetta TDI, 132K "Rudy"
1974 Triumph TR6
1999 Saab 9-5 wagon (wife's)

I do a lot of heavy draw trolling applications, and you can have good voltage that fakes you into thinking it's o.k., but when you put a heavy load on it the voltage drops way down, usually material shed from the plates causing an internal short, or sulfated plates from chronic undercharge, or not enough juice from chronic overcharging. I use 36 volt motors, and its a pain to figure out which battery is going bad...

The OEM battery is a four year battery.
You got 7 - 8 years out of it, let it RIP and buy a new one...

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1985 300SD
1983 300D
1984 190D
2003 Volvo V70
2002 Honda Civic

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Check the battery cables. If you had such corrosion at the battery terminals, the cables might also have corrosion inside of them. If they do the car won't start, if they're bad enough. The only time my 300D wouldn't start was when the battery cables were bad. . . . .

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1980 300D
1977 450SEL

agree fully there with whunter. don't do what i did and get the call from the wife with the original oem battery 7 years old that just blew in the supermarket parking lot

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1984 300D Turbo - 231k....totalled 11/30/07 RIP

If I suspect that a battery is going south on me, I'll do sort of a quick and dirty load test of sorts by reading the voltage at the battery terminals while cranking. [edited to add: The battery should be reasonably well charged prior to performing this test.] With suitable test leads and clips, it can be arranged so that the digital multimeter is easily read from inside the car.

A battery that looks fine just sitting there may show a large voltage drop under the load of cranking the engine. If it looks fine at the battery terminals, but the cables are suspect, then one can do a similar test at the starter terminals to find out what voltage the starter motor is seeing (again, during cranking, because that's when a voltage drop due to dodgy cable or connections is apparent).

I also agree with others here that the original battery is the prime suspect based on advanced age.

And she was so wonderfully eloquent and verbose in expressing her joy!!! LOL
Has she forgiven you yet???
Seventeen years and my wife still brings up the defective NEW battery that I installed in her car.

Getting a new battery is probably the first/most logical step. I was just a little baffled when I saw 12V+ when I put a multi-tester to it.
A new battery it is then.

Thanks gentlemen.

__________________
'85 300SD (formerly california emissions)
'08 Chevy Tahoe
'93 Ducati 900 SS
'79 Kawasaki KZ 650
'86 Kawasaki KX 250
'88 Kawasaki KDX200
'71 Hodaka Ace 100
'72 Triumph T100R

I don't know if they've been posted here before, but these seemed fairly informative to me. Both were put together by the same guy (Bill Darden), so some of the information is common to both references.

How do I test a car battery?

Car Battery Frequently Asked Questions


These are offered only for informational purposes. I'm not suggesting that a big array of tests is necessary for the battery in the Escort. I agree that if that battery isn't dead by now, it ought to be.