Hello!
I tried to start my 2004 Grand Prix GT2 after 11 day while I was travelling, but it would not crank. I could hear the starter unsuccessfully trying to start.
I figured my battery wasn't holding charge properly, so the first attempt was to charge with jumper cables to an SUV; and it wouldn't turn over. 2nd attempt was a small battery booster, again it wouldn't turn over. Three's a charm though, and the third try with a commercial-grade battery boost got my car running. This got me home from 250km away (4 hours later), through a gas station, picking packages up, and crossing the border without shutting my car off. All the way, at least a dozen times 'Charging System Failure' came up on my dash computer, especially when hitting high revs while passing other vehicles.
So I get into my driveway, shut the car off, and try to restart it... nothing. It won't crank again.
I don't think it's the alternator because I drove for 4 hours without issue.
I don't think it's the starter because the engine did crank with a commercial boost hooked up in parallel; it just took a lot more power to get it going (the external connection).
I removed corrosion from both terminals and re-seated the cables but this didn't seem to change anything.
I removed the negative battery clamp from the negative terminal, and with a multimeter was able to see a 12-14V difference between the two components. I also saw a voltage difference between the negative terminal and the engine... which leads me to believe the positive battery cable is shorting to the chassis somewhere. I removed fuses one by one from the engine compartment fuse block but I wasn't able to track the source of the short - this leads me to believe there are more than one shorts to the chassis, or that the short is off of the main positive terminal cables.
Are there any common points of failure on the 2004 Grand Prix for the battery cables? Is there an easier way to diagnose which component failed/where the short is?
