Need Help. Car won't start.
 

My lights come on, the radio comes on. When I turn the ignition it just ticks repeatedly. What is it? What can I do? Please help. I have a 96 GS3. :(

Battery is low, terminals with some corrosion.............some juice is getting across, but not enough to turn the starter motor (which takes a LOT since it's got to spin all those pistons). You should be able to jump it if you've got a friend and some jumper cables, though.

Pull the battery cables and clean both the posts and the terminals and then reclamp. How old is the battery? If more than 4 yrs, it's probably gone bad (tho the battery in my 01 GS went this past summer).

Thanks! I hope and pray that it is just the battery. Anyone else have anymore suggestions/opinions? :(

If it's not the battery, the next logical problem is the starter. Even w/ enough juice from the battery, a faulty starter will cause a "click" sound (but no crank) each time you try to start it, and occasionally, it will start, sometimes, it won't. I've had 2 starters go out on me on a couple of previous cars, and both exhibited similar problems. The battery is much cheaper and easier--check the connections and clean up the posts and see if it's OK first, if not, then highly likely your starter.

At lunch I only had enough time to try and start it. It started right up. I cut it off and tried to start it again and it did the repeated clicking sound again. What do y'all think? :(

Same as my first post. That does rule out some causes of bad starter, however.

Sounds just like how my 2 other starters went out on my previous car. First, I thought it was the battery as it would sometimes start, sometimes it wouldn't. When it wouldn't, it would go "click" when I tried to crank it; however, my lights didn't dim at all.

What gave it away that it was the starter was this--I changed the 2 year old battery to a new one. Tried starting it w/ a new battery, and upon the first try, it cranked and started fine. After 30 s, I shut off the car, then tried to crank, "click", tried to crank, "click". Sure enough, once I put in a new starter, the car started up just fine, time after time. I would highly bet that it's your starter.

Thanks, to everyone for their responses. I learned a lot. Anyway, it was my battery contacts. I cleaned my battery posts and clamps and it cranked fine thereafter over and over. Again, Thanks, to everyone that responded! I love this forum! :D