Engine will not start, battery has no power, when I connect the battery post it sparks fire

Tiny
ELITTLE
  • MEMBER
  • 2004 CHEVROLET VAN
  • 6 CYL
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 150,000 MILES
I went out to start the van and the battery did not have any power so I tried jumping it off and the battery post sparked fire. I had the alternator checked and it was bad. So I replace it and it still did the same thing. What could it be?
Tuesday, January 24th, 2017 AT 4:50 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,907 POSTS
If the battery was drained and you found the alternator was not charging and you replaced it, we still have to deal with the battery issue.

Once a battery is completely drained then it is unlikely to recover and be reliable. This means we need to start with getting the battery checked so that we can find out if the battery is ok.

Here is a guide that will help with this:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/car-battery-load-test

If the battery is okay and it still drains, then we need to find out if there is a draw on the battery.

Here is a guide that will help with this:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/car-battery-dead-overnight

I suspect there will be an issue with the battery, and we will need to replace it so here is the info from the manual that will help with this.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-replace-a-car-battery

Please see below for the info from the manual. Let us know what you find, and we can go from there.

Thanks
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Saturday, January 15th, 2022 AT 12:41 PM

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