My car completely dies randomly at stop lights or right at the start-up. No clicking sound or whatsoever. Complete death.

My batteries are holding charge fine. My alternator is 2 yeas old, so the charging system is not the problem.

The weird thing is, if I tap on the battery terminal with a metal and make some sparks, the electricity comes right back on.

What could be the cause of this?

 

Are the terminals clean and free of corrosion? Whats the condition of the wires?

 

The terminals are 14 years old and were never replaced. How would i check the condition of it, and would it be difficult to change them myself?

 

see if the terminal is loose when its on the battery because thats what happen to mine. it takes about 10min to replace it, i just did mine last month.

 

you can take some sandpaper or something abrasive like a screwdriver and scratch the inside of the ring on the terminal. this will remove some of the corrosion and the scratches into the metal make a clean contact to the battery.

also like sicksc3 said, tightening it might do the trick and also check to see if the crimp where the terminal attatches to the wire is still in place. if its not tight i would get a new terminal (like 5 bucks)

once you clean it off/scratch it there is this red spray you can get at your local auto store that coats the terminals and doesn't let them corrode as much. Ive used it on all my cars.

 

Terminals are as tight as they can be.

 

I really hope it's just the terminal. Any idea what that red thing is called?

 

chrono - the bolts on the terminal may be tight but even if the bolt doesn't turn anymore, the terminal can still be loose.

i had the same problem on my GS a few months ago and a new terminal fixed everything.

 

Oh, I see what you mean. And yeah, you are right. On one of the terminal the bolt is tight, but the whole terminal itself is loose. How do i tighten this?
Thanks.

 

Damn.. that was a pretty noob problem. Didn't know there were two nuts on each post.

I tightened everything down. Hopefully this will solve my problem.
Thanks guys.

 

Check your grounds.

 

On my terminal I had to get a new metal piece to replace the whole thing that bolts to the battery post.

cost was like 30 bucks.