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Here's the day's events, culminating into the car being towed to my Saab dealer:
As I was leaving to get re-fueled, I plugged in my radar detector into the lighter, and it didn't come on. I looked at the fuses, and found #9 (30 amp) was blown. It is the circuit for the lighter, rear windows, and sunroof. I replaced it and the detector came on. I went to the gas station, turned the car off, and re-fueled. When I turned it back on, the detector was not working again, only to find the fuse blown once more. I pulled to the side of the station, turned the car off, and replaced the fuse.
When I went to start the car this time, it would not start. I could hear a "fast-clicking" noise coming from the interior fuse compartment, but the engine was not even trying to turn over. I asked someone for a jump (thinking it might be a dead battery). I could hear a clicking noise coming from the engine bay near the battery this time (as well as from the interior fuse area), but this may have been because the hood was now open, and the sound may have been present before when trying to start the car without a jump. Within the 3 - 5 seconds of trying to jump the car (without any luck), I noticed the jumper cables became extremely hot. I found this out when I went to remove them from the batteries. I re-checked the cables to make sure none of the ends were touching each other as well as making sure the polarity of the ends was correct (negative-to-negative, etc.), which was all okay.
At this point I knew something was up, and I doubted it was the battery. Typically, a dying battery will give off tell-tale signs (dim headlights, harder starting, etc.). When I went to lock the doors with the key-fob, the horn beeped once, but was barely audible, as well as the locks went down slower than normal.
Before any of this had happened, I had just been going through the INFO on the dashpanel (yes, I am one of those few people who check my guages regularly as I drive), and the voltmeter displayed 13.8 - 13.9, which is the normal range for my car. This leads me to believe that my alternator is okay.
As I said before, the engine would not even try to crank over. Might it be a starter problem? If it were the battery, the engine would at least try to turn over, right?
Any ideas are greatly appreciated!!!!!
Joe
'98 CSET auto 55K
posted by 12.111.48...
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