so my car won't start, it just makes a clicking sound and was only able to be jumped once, after which it won't start again . . . we replaced the contacts on the negative battery terminal a few weeks ago, which made it work, but now it's back to the same behavior. i have reason to believe that there's corrosion on the positive terminal - has anbody ever done a wholesale replacement of these cables? i took the battery out and can't even begin to figure out how to go about doing this . . .

 

Are you sure they dont need cleaning? Most of the time the cables are fine (Especially on a relatively new car) and just need the cable ends and battery terminals cleaned.

Did you clean the battery terminal area well when you replaced the cables?

 

also, have you charged the battery and checked to make sure it holds a charge? is this the stock battery or a different one? (i suppose it is stock....)

 

did you test the battery...

 

battery is brand new . . . there was a LOT of corrosion damage up in there because my under-car splash guards had been gone for a long time, and it's been through flood and monsoon type stuff . . . yeah. i checked and cleaned the ends, still the same . . .

 

did you have the starter tested too?

like it was said, the cars not even 10 years old, there should be no reason for wires to go bad that fast

 

even if the battery is brand new, it still needs to be tested. i've had battery issues like what you're stating, and it was just the battery. i'm on my 4th battery by the way and i've had the car for 2.5 years//21,000 miles.

 

if your alt is bad you will kill a new battery in a day or too, check the battery the alt and the starter

 

You have a charging issue for sure of some kind to go through batteries like that. It is either being undercharged or overcharged, which is why you keep going through them (there is a problem that is not being fixed).

I am on the stock battery at 5 years and 77000 miles through Minnesota winter temps. I have had the same battery in my Saturn for about 6 years I think.

 

ive been on my stock battery for 40k miles still perfect! 2 1/2 years

 

lol . how many mile do you have? if its under 3y/36k your still under warranty.

 

My stock battery on my tC lasted me 5 years and about 130K miles, deff. something not working properly there.