ak3883

I went to start my car this morning, and it took quite a while, it seemed to try to start, then did a repetitive cranking for about 8 seconds, and slowly came to life after about 12 seconds after initially turning the key to Start. The battery sounded like it had juice to crank it, but it was not turning over very fast. I could smell gas afterwards(I just had to move it into the other garage bay), I didn't give it any gas to start it.

Is this normal, for not having drove it in 5 days, and it being very winterlike here? It is kept in a non-heated garage, but it has gotten to 3 above and single digits a couple nights.

I'm not really concerned, since something close to this has never happened, and 5 days, even inside when it hasn't been above freezing all day... I was just wondering if this would be considered "normal" or not.

I'm thinking i'll take it somewhere tonight just to drive it, and probably should take it out, even just for 15 minutes like every other day.

Thanks!

98CoupeV6

Yeah, it's pretty normal...you can check the condition of your battery with a voltmeter or take it to an auto place to have them check it out if you're concerned about that. Replacing the spark plugs and spark plug wires, along with the dist cap and rotor, will also help your car start. My car was starting very hard a couple weeks ago, then I changed my spark plugs and did Seafoam engine treatment...now she fires up pretty quickly.

ak3883

Thanks for the reply, it started fine this evening, i'll just be sure to take it out at least every other day when it's really cold.

wedley2

im gonna be leaving my car for about 8 days, should i bother taking off the battery?

cuz my alarm is hooked up now...

98CoupeV6

Well, if you really wanna play it safe, you can unhook your negative terminal so that absolutely nothing drains any battery power. But then again, you'll lose your alarm...8 days won't be nearly enough to kill it.