Hello All,
I had to make new acct, but I am back! Anyways my 97GTP , I went to start today (car was driven a good amount last two weeks), and I heard one slight click, and all lights went dead on dash and nothing. I am thinking it is the starter, but could it be anything else? I did replace ignition switch at 90k, also. The car has 160k and its original starter. The battery measured 12.35 Volts...If it is what starter would be best one to get?

Thanks KD

It's not the starter. It is likely the battery. It could have 12+ volts sitting there, but I would bet if you had someone measure it when you put a load on it (ie, try to start it) the voltage drops to 5 or 6 volts.

Try another battery or try boosting it.

Agreed. Another possible culprit is corrosion. I took for granted that my wife was able to torque the terminals down enough while I was gone. Sure enough, the corrosion had caused enough of a gap that there was some welding going on. I had the dealership install new cable ends and smooth out the battery terminals. Vroom.

thanks for the info. I know all about the grounds, as I lapped them a few years back. My car would just "shut off" with the corrison especially living in Buffalo.
I will try the battery thing...Keep you posted, thanks

Just a little update. I put a voltmeter on and when I started the car, the battery went down to about 4 volts, kept dropping to zero.
I tried jumping the car, its tough to get the jumper cables on, but I felt it was secure enough, and I heard a little rotation in starter, but car still wouldnt jump over!

So do you think its starter now? I know it still could be ground wires right? or even the battery...

Thanks for help in advance.

It's the battery. Remove the cables clean off any corrosion reattach the cables make sure the jumper cables make a good connection and jump start the car.

If the battery is showing 4 volts and dropping your gonna have to leave the cables attached for a few minutes with the car doing the jumping at a high idle to get enough juice back into it to start the car.

dont forget to use battery grease after you clean up the terminals and cable ends.

To prove it is the battery, disconnect the battery and hook the jumper cables up to battery cables. Have someone rev the other car up a little and try starting your car.

The car needs 12+ volts. Even if it is 11.5 volts, that is likely not enough to get it to roll over.

thansk try on tomorrow

You guys were correct, it was the battery! Kind of wierd how it read 12.4v with no load, but you guys were all correct with your assessment! Thats why I come here.
Thanks for all the help!
Now if i can just get that oil leak fix!

Keith

what oil leak? LIM? I had a LIM and oil pan leak on the GP. The oil pan is what I had the dealership work on. The LIM, that wasn't that hard at all. It's just intimidating before digging into the task. If you have the GT, I would suggest doing the HV3 and inj orings at the same time. If you have a GTP, I would suggest doing the inj orings when you replace the LIM. Either way, do the inj orings. Also make sure you replace the valve cover gaskets if you haven't had the recall done yet.

It's the amps that matter. A battery can have the voltage but if there isn't enough amps it's useless.

yeah, the batteries that we took out of our ford diesel always showed good voltages but they just couldn't handle a load. They might be good to start a lawnmower or something like that.

Guess you didn't have any problems removing the positive cable from the battery because the part that the post screws into on ours has broke twice before once being the original battery and then the second replacement ac delco battery. The battery that is in it now though, we got had side and top posts on it because i thought it might be nice to have the top posts if you ever needed them but they are basically useless.