Hi i'm new to the forum long time cadillac forum user! I have a 1997 Olds Aurora. Had her about 2 years now, it's in very nice shape. I bought from a guy that said it needs the alternator replaced, So when I went to pick it up I brought a few charged batteries with me so I could make it home. But that was 2 years ago and it charged perfectly from that day on! I guess I thought the guy was nuts cuz there was nothing wrong with it! But 2 days ago it wasn't charging when I went to leave work. I took the back seat out and started wiggling wires around because I have done some reading on it when I was thinking about buying it, and I read all about this Thermistor thing on the positive battery cable. So after 10-15 mins. I got it to magically charge again. But when I went to leave in the morning for work it was doing it again! So I took my girls car to work, so when I got home I started working on it and just by wiggling wires around it would charge then quit and now it just wont charge!! I'm not sure if there may be a short or can these Thermistors go bad??
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95' Aurora Charging issue!!!!
- Thread starter jrdemell
- Start date
505_pike
New member
I would start by pulling both the negative (-), and positive (+) battery terminals off and check for corrosion because if your moving those wires around and it starts, odds are it's because of a bad contact, and/or a short in your battery cables themselves.
Once the terminals are off look at their backside, it should be clean metal, if it is not mix some coca-cola with baking soda and it will remove a good amount of corosion.
If there isn't any corrosion, next step I would take is pulling the alternator and having it tested.
Do everything that is free, or cheap first so your not throwing valuable money at something that could be a free/extremely cheap fix. Good luck!
Once the terminals are off look at their backside, it should be clean metal, if it is not mix some coca-cola with baking soda and it will remove a good amount of corosion.
If there isn't any corrosion, next step I would take is pulling the alternator and having it tested.
Do everything that is free, or cheap first so your not throwing valuable money at something that could be a free/extremely cheap fix. Good luck!
Yes thats a good idea! I did order the Thermistor that goes on the positive battery cable only because there was only one on ebay and no where else really sells them! But The bad part of all this is I need this car to be able to get to work!! I'm doing a intake gasket job on my wife's Malibu now also so she has been driving her Dad's car. And with all this going on...I live in ohio and it pretty cold and very rain outside because of this Hurricane and and my garage has a project going on in there also!! But anyway i'm going to go out side and check for corrosion and ill get back to ya!
Has anyone ever had one of these Thermistors go bad before? The reason I think it's something beside the alternator itself is cuz when I bought it thats why the guy sold it because he said the alternator was bad and he didn't want to replace it and this was 2 years ago and when I got it alls I did was throw one of my batteries in it that I had laying around and It has worked perfectly ever since! Now the only thing I did recently to disturb it back there is I removed the back seat one day right before this happened because it's getting cold not and my drivers seat heater is not working so I was checking the fuses! It hasn't worked since I bought the car!
505_pike
New member
I apologize, I must have read over the part where you said you were moving wires around near the back seat, I thought you were moving them at the battery so my tip will do no justice.
Update
No ur right! Im driving a 97 Aurora the battery is under the back seat!! Lol But away here's the latest: Still waiting on time and parts but i should have 4 hours on Saturday to work on it!! Next I drove the car yesterday and once again charged for a little bit then seems to drop to about 12 volts even when i let off the gas and apply the brake! Once I take off again it would go back to normal. But then it just quickly stopped charging altogether again and wiggling didn't help me this time! I don't but this is start to become a pain!! So I need to get that Thermistor if that don't work I guess my next step would be to take out the alternator and have it checked. Anyone have any other suggestion or tips? Also does anyone know how many ohms the thermistor should test at?
No ur right! Im driving a 97 Aurora the battery is under the back seat!! Lol But away here's the latest: Still waiting on time and parts but i should have 4 hours on Saturday to work on it!! Next I drove the car yesterday and once again charged for a little bit then seems to drop to about 12 volts even when i let off the gas and apply the brake! Once I take off again it would go back to normal. But then it just quickly stopped charging altogether again and wiggling didn't help me this time! I don't but this is start to become a pain!! So I need to get that Thermistor if that don't work I guess my next step would be to take out the alternator and have it checked. Anyone have any other suggestion or tips? Also does anyone know how many ohms the thermistor should test at?
Sounds like the thermosistor could be your problem. I have heard that if you pull on it and it comes apart it means they are bad. I put an alternator on a customers Aurora because it was not charging, after that the battery light stays on, but the alternator is charging. I told them they probably need a thermosistor even thought it appears to be good. They are happy with it the way it is, though, as long as it's charging. Hope it fixes your problem.
Update:
Hi everyone, here are the results after i got all the parts and time to work on it. So i bought another thermistor and i tested the resistance of them both and they were equal so needless to say that wasn't the problem. But like i said before i had the alternator for it already but i had put it on my 99 Deville, so i had to take that off and the one on the Aurora, then i put the alternator on the Aurora and fired her up and it's perfect now! So that was my problem, it took me like 4 plus hours in the cold outside to do this, wasn't fun!!
Also i just wanted to say that when the alternator went out on my deville i just put the one i had bought for the Aurora on cuz i wasn't having any problems at all. And once i put it on the caddy it did the same thing you said it was charging perfect but the charging light and other warnings were stll saying that it was not charging. The two alternator are almost the exact same not sure what made it do that for yet but ill find out soon if i can remember correctly all the parts were exactly the same, except 1 and that was the voltage regulator. Hope this can help somone! Thank you!!!
Hi everyone, here are the results after i got all the parts and time to work on it. So i bought another thermistor and i tested the resistance of them both and they were equal so needless to say that wasn't the problem. But like i said before i had the alternator for it already but i had put it on my 99 Deville, so i had to take that off and the one on the Aurora, then i put the alternator on the Aurora and fired her up and it's perfect now! So that was my problem, it took me like 4 plus hours in the cold outside to do this, wasn't fun!!
Also i just wanted to say that when the alternator went out on my deville i just put the one i had bought for the Aurora on cuz i wasn't having any problems at all. And once i put it on the caddy it did the same thing you said it was charging perfect but the charging light and other warnings were stll saying that it was not charging. The two alternator are almost the exact same not sure what made it do that for yet but ill find out soon if i can remember correctly all the parts were exactly the same, except 1 and that was the voltage regulator. Hope this can help somone! Thank you!!!