Long story short... I got gas from a place I have never gotten gas from because they were near by.

I drove maybe 20 miles and when I went to start car everything died out with a sound.... as though the battery completly died out.

I fiddled around under the hood to see if something was loose or busted and nothing. I even checked battery terminals and they were tight.

Got back in the car and it started and I went home. When I got home, I turned the car off an attempted to start it again. Again, everything died out and it would not start... though it did put forth some effort. I checked under the hood and the battery and when I looked, the lights had came back on... and it started.


Now, I just did the third test and same results. The battery is less than a year old... however I don't get any power unless I fiddle at the terminals.

Is this a sign of:

A. Battery wires or terminals needed replacement.
B. Alternator gone BAD...
C. Starter gone bad which was replaced a year ago.
D. Fuel... either fuel filter clogged or cheap watery gas.

My baby is a 97 Thunderbird 3.8.... never had any issues until now

Thanks for reading

 

If the alternator were bad and the battery was dead it wouldn't start easily a few minutes later.
From what you describe , I would suspect a poor connection at the battery terminals (they can look good and be no good) especially since you were able to get it started after "fiddling" with the battery connections at the battery. The simplest thing to do is remove the cables and clean them where they attach to the battery. One thing to keep in mind is after you disconnect the battery cables to clean them the vehicle will need to relearn your driving habits and seem to be different performance wise. One or two short trips will usually correct this

 

Each battery connection has another end, clean that as well.

I sure hope you don't boycot the place you bought the gas from.

 

A quick test. Can you get some gas from the fuel tank/system?
Just pour a little bit of it on the ground or concrete and try to lite it with a match. If it will burn OK. If not, stuarta has a good point, you may have purchased some contaminated gasoline. Let us know , and we can go from there.

 

I don't recall saying anything about contaminated fuel.

 

You're right , you did not. That suggestion was in reply to the original post asking about cheap watery gas.