slo9012Vde

now bare with me here its going to be redundant and long. i am a terrible typer.

Aiight foo?

ok so i got a 90 240 hatch, with the 24e in it. its got 95k on it, runs great when it starts...

bought it for 800 bucks, body is crap, i live in NE ohio.

got the car, wouldn't start. had the battery replaced, worked awesome. then 2 weeks later, wouldnt start.
next - alternator, replaced that, first mod (if you can call it one) got that done.
next - spark plugs, ngk's
next- alt fuse, found it was broken got that.
now i am just working on the car, i want it to run so i can go start having some fun with it. i am a poor college boy so i use funds to work with when i get the money haha..

well just now, the ceiling drywall fell onto my car new years eve, and now it has problems starting.. i think it did before but it had been a week or 2 since i started it.
so i go to move it out of the garage and well it dosn't even turn over.. i jump it and it starts right up.
14.26 over the battery
14.2 from the alt.

so i figured great, i let it run connected for a while to help then disconnected it and it still ran fine. i shut it off after about 10 minuts then came out about an hour later to check and make sure and it started great.

3 days later it dosn't turn over again.... any ideas? if its not one thing its the other with this car haha

i can jump it and it will be ok, but the cold crank is 525 and normal is 630 or something.

i guess i should get an optima battery??? who knows now.

i have asked a few of my work friends (ASE mechanics) and they all have different oppinions of what it is. some say its the alternator selanoid. and others think i have to drive the car to the closest advanced (35 min away..) and get the battery deep tested and get the alternator tested.

now my next question is, i am looking at local bone yards and found a 95 ka24de with 77k on it manual and it comes tranny and engine, i am not sure about the wire harness, but its 650. is that a good deal? the company said it runs great. should i look for a different year like a 91 or a 98? but i just want more input on the situation.

alright thanks,
slo

heres a pic of the roof falling onto the car lol

l2aine

damn that must have sucked to see that in the garage.

Hmm... did you replace the alternator with a used or rebuilt one? That's the first thing I thought of when reading your post.

2nd - if the alternator and battery check out fine, I'd suggest next that there might be some parasitic drain on the battery... kind of like how, if you keep your car stored for over a month, the clock memory, alarm system, etc. (anything requiring a constant voltage source) would eventually drain your battery to dead.

What I'd try:

Since you said it's dead after 3 days - If you have a multimeter, hook it up to the battery one night after driving around, record the current voltage reading the second you park and shut off the vehicle, and then check the difference in voltage the next morning.

The next day, do the same thing - but disconnect the ground and positive terminals (In other words, battery is not connected at all to the car) overnight. If the voltage drop is noticeable, then your battery might need replacing. If the voltage barely drops, there's one more thing to try.

The next day, check the battery voltage BEFORE you start the car. Do your daily routine, drive as much as possible, then when you get home and turn the car off, check the voltage of the battery. If it's noticeably lower than before you started the car, chances are the alternator isn't recharging the battery properly.

twofotisx

Unless you are planning to swap the other engine in yourself I would consider just trying to get every last dying breath out of your car before you think of doing anything else. Like having a new engine in your car would rock, but not if you had to pay a huge install fee only to discover that your body has more rust than a fence gate after it's been pissed on by your dog for years. All I'm saying is that you would definetly spend about double the amount of money that you bought your car in the first place with. I would recommend just saving that and waiting till your 240 siezes or something, and then just buy another 240.

I'm not trying to force my opinion on you and I know I'm not the highest authority or anything *shakes fist at l2aine* but I would just hate for someone to sink their money into a car that wouldn't be around long enough for the owner to reap the benifits.

slo9012Vde

right now, the alternator is a rebuilt one. and i have checked the battery before i drove it and it tested at 7.06.. but thats getting me really mad. i just got insurance on the car so i can finally drive it, but i am scared to drive it around because i dont know if its going to break down haha.

and two, one of my goals for the summer was to send the car out to get completly fixed. as in take it to a shop and have them repair the rust, under coat the hell out of it, then seal it then prime it and paint it so it will be good as new. i have alot of connections through people so i will see what happens.

thanks for the input.
-slo