electrical problem

[FiLLuP]

every once in a while, my battery just dies and i need to get it jumped to start. i went to pep boys yesterday to get the battery checked, he said it was still good, but that it just needed to be recharged. so he did that for me. everything ran fine that day until this morning.

i tried to start it up, the interior lights lit up when i put the key in the "on" position, but when i tried to crank it, nothing happened. could this be more serious than the battery? when i get home, im going to try and switch batteries with another car to see if the problem is the battery or something else.

[Vincent]

Have you had the alternator tested??

[FiLLuP]

Yeah, i was going to get that done today as well. does pep boys do that also? autozone?

only reason i went to pep boys was because that was where i got my red top from, and was hoping to get a new one under warranty if it was dead.

[JMax]

if it's not your starter, what about the alternator?

[lyttleviet]

smells like alternator.

[Mr.Honda]

It's either the alternator or the battery. But thats exactly what was happening with my sentra the guy said the battery was good but I changed it anyway and low and behold that fixed the problem.

[HangNail]

alt

[dak4.7]

Well when you crank it what kind of noise does it make? If the battery is low it should at least make that irritating ticking sound, especially if it's got enough juice to light up all the interior lighting. If your battery was THAT dead that it didn't even make that sound, it's pretty unlikely they could recharge it (yellow tops are the deep cells, you can't do that to the red tops as readily).

I'd bet either your alternator or your starter. You said nothing happens... if it's not making noise, it's more likely your starter, maybe the solenoid isn't engaging (that usually makes a lil knock sound briefly when you turn the key, maybe you missed it).

EDIT: Had any electronics installed lately? Could be something (alarm, amps, etc) installed incorrectly that's draining battery power when the car is shut off, giving you a dead battery every morning.