HELP CAR JUST DIED...NEED HELP FAST PLEASE..

[ASKYOURWIFE]

......Strated off about 2 weeks ago...Went to a local bar/club with a large group of friends...

Comes to the end of the night and I go out the club realizing that their is a group of 20-25 people out in front of the club. i start my viper up with a huge smile on my face realizing that this was the moment I had been waiting for my hole life. The moment that I WAS THE GUY that was driving off from the club in the fast expensive sports car and getting all the girls ******* wet...

So all eyes were on me the second I turned the key...So she comes to life and I see all the oohs and ahhhs..and then she dies..

Well long story short I had to restart the car about 5 times just to make it out of the parking lot...All eyes were on me alright..and all the laughs as well..

This happenned a few more times during the past week or two....

But then today while approaching a busy intersection at 7 am in the morning the car stalled and then completely died...I mean COMPLETELY died..the windows wont budge..Even the hazard flashers wouldnt come on...

After being stuck in the middle of this intersection for around 20 minutes I witnessed ATLEASTE 6 differrent vehicles almost have accidents trying to avoid my car...But as hard as i tried due to the decline and incline of were the car died I was unable to move the vehicle..

Finally my cousin showed up as well as a stranger who helped me push thje car from the intersection and then a toe truck was called to put her back in my drive way..

Just charged the viper battery up with my truck using cables for about 45 minutes...And now lights will come on and the windows will roll up buy the car still wont start...

Is this simply the battery or do you suspect somthing else? I bought this car one month ago and no very little about them.

 

[Ulysses]

Could be as simple as a battery, but could be more difficult than that. What year car?

 

[BLWNGTS]

Sounds like the battery is gone. Happens to a lot of vipers. A new battery will cure the problem!!

 

[Andrew/USPWR]

At least start with a new battery.

 

[Jack B]

As everyone has said, change the battery and reset the alarm. That is the starting point, if it doesn't start, Trouble Shooting Phase 2 starts.

 

[ASKYOURWIFE]

The car is a 1999 with 28 K miles....The guy who sold me the car said he is going to buy me a battery tender and let the battery charge to see if that helps....

But dose a weak battery really casuse the car to stall out like it was doing over the past few weeks?

 

[Ulysses]

Yes, but in my case it was a matter of minutes, not weeks. Once the battery is charged up, I would try it in the car again and possibly get it load tested.

 

[RevHeat]

The best thing to do is go get a new battery. You will just be wasting time trying to charge the old one.

When you do install the new battery, you might need to push down the gas pedal when you try to start the car. This procedure is needed sometimes after having a battery has been totally drained.

Rev

 

[Supercharged Vipermad]

Life span of a battery in a Viper: 3-5 years

Peace of mind replacing it every 4 no matter what: priceless.

 

[Flash Gordon]

FWIW - I had similar symptoms and I also had a battery tender connected when stored. When the battery got weak enough, even the battery tender left on for a week was unable to bring it back to life. My battery was a Mopar and lasted 3 years to the day. Installed a Sears DieHard and PRESTO...

 

[malcoll]

Don't mess around with charging the battery... it may work for a while.. but eventually you'll be back in that embarrassing situation again.

 

[crossram440]

Ok, Here is one thingt for you to check. If it turns out not to be a bad battery it could be a problem that happened with mine. I recently got my 97 GTS and was told it had a new battery,. Well The car was delivered to my work and the first drive to take it home to meet the family it died, just three miles into the drive. I mean everything shut off going down the freway at 70mph. Popped it in nuetral and tried to start it as I was rolling,... Nothing!..., clicked on the flashers as I was slowing and those didnt even work. Now I'm ticked just got it and now I have to have it towed home. The only thought was I hope they just didnt get the battery attatched properly as they said they always unhooked it when it was parked. Called for help and some tools to be brought. We put a meter on the jump start battery post under the hood and nothing, no voltage. We planned to check the battery,so I pushed the plastic cover back on the aux battery post and I heard the door locks click and the hazards started to work. The connection was tight and the wire was not loose???(so it felt) Oh man some sort of short. I started pushing and pulling on the wire and post. I was able to get the lights to flicker off and on a couple of times. All electrical was back on so I drove it home and made it.The car died again in the drive while waiting to give my son his first ride. Wiggled the post and it came back to life. It turns out that the previous owners had regularly unhooked the battery at the aux jump terminal under the hood. Over time they broke loose the stud coming out of the Electrical panel and it did not make a tight connection anymore. But why did it feel tight and the battery feed not loose??? I removed the top of the box to access the bottom of the battery stud. The process of tightening /loosening /tightening / loosenging had chewed up some of the plastic around the base of the stud and some of it was getting caught below it and the battery terminal. It would feel tight but it was not making good contact metal to metal. It was metal to plastic. I replaced the stud a stainless bolt and lock washer with red locktight added so it wont back off again. Never had the problem since. Just something to check on yours if EVERYTHING goes dead like mine did.

 

[ASKYOURWIFE]

That sounds like a great idea....Im gonna try that. The previous owner says he put a brand new battery in aroun 1-1.5 years ago...Sometimes the car would run perfect for me start after start...Then every once in a while the car would stall like it was getting little to know power????

Then suddenly after starting up perfectly on the first try that morning 2 miles laster everything just dies????

Ill check this right now..

 

[AviP]

Get a new battery first. It's not worth the effort pulling the wheel and plastic multiple times to check for loose connections and everything else. Besides it's only %50-$75 bucks and you said: "...I WAS THE GUY that was driving off from the club in the fast expensive sports car...".

P.S. I found these too funny and had to correct you.
my hole life = my whole life,
toe truck = tow truck

 

[RoadiJeff]

only %50-$75 bucks
P.S. I found these too funny and had to correct you.

%50 = $50

 

[GTSJERRY]

Try pulling the wheel off and access the battery, dodge used side post terminals like most gm vehicles, gm has had many years of problems with these side post terminals coming loose or people not getting them tight when installing a new battery. Had this problem with mine, I had it about a year and went to leave one day and the car wouldn't start, called my wife to bring me a battery and when i got the wheel off and to the battery the positive cable was about two turns from falling out.

 

[RAYSIR]

I agree more with CROSSRAM. Almost Same thing happened to mine. I noticed it wasn't charging and I was 30 miles from home so turned off everything I could electrical. Just made it into my garage and it quit. Turned out 6" from the jumper post under hood a taped up terminal lug (factory) got loose an burned up and corroded. It has 2 wires, 1 to fuse box and the other direct to alternator. It only lost the 1 to alternator so it stayed running OTW home. GUYS, remember that the car will jump and run with a dead battery if the alternator is charging.The battery cranks the car and the alternator will run it even if the battery is disconnected, it just keeps the charge up .

 

[RoadiJeff]

GUYS, remember that the car will jump and run with a dead battery if the alternator is charging.The battery cranks the car and the alternator will run it even if the battery is disconnected, it just keeps the charge up

I was wondering about that. If it is merely a dead battery why would it stall once the car is running? Doesn't the alternator take over at that point?

 

[Supercharged Vipermad]

I was wondering about that. If it is merely a dead battery why would it stall once the car is running? Doesn't the alternator take over at that point?

In theory, yes....but....there have been MANY people in the past who had a car that was acting hinky. The battery was changed and it was fixed. PFM? Maybe. Over the many, many years it has been quite interesting to see the various issues caused by a dying/dead battery. Since his battery, presumably stock, is 5+ years old....it's an easy thing to handle. He loses nothing by trying this since his battery should be replaced anyway.

 

[crossram440]

As far as the alternator running a car just fine used to be true,.. Older vehicles before all of this fancy computer controlled stuff came about would run just fine when you pulled out the battery. There are many newer vehicles that will not run on a subpar battery, They will do funky things, Can't tell you which models exactly but I would have to guess that a majority of anything built now would have some issue with a battery being unhooked and still trying to make it run. I have seen many examples of this, Most recent was a couple years back, my neighbor had an Indy Beretta, The digital dash would slowly dim as she drove then go black, then the car would buck and sputter then shut off. It would not start again for 20 minutes or so.then it would be fine for a while and repeat the scenerio. Went in several times for repair for this, long story short the battery was the culprit, After it heated up it had an internal short and caused havoc. Battery tested fine when cold out of the car. When it was load tested several times in succession and would get hot it would fail, Battery was replaced the car has been fine ever since. They don't call it electrical "Gremlins" for nothing.