Hello all. So for the past two weeks are so my car has started fine...sort of. With it getting somewhat colder (35-45F) my car would take a little more effort to start. HOWEVER, just yesterday I was pulling into my parking spot at my apartment and the car simply died. It has never done that before. So I was like...ok? I tried to restart it and it just tries to start but can't quite do it. So it does more than a click. The belts and things turn like it is going to start and then simply just sits there and keeps doing it.

My girlfriend tried to give me a jump and that was no luck. We had it hooked up for probably 15 minutes to her running car and still had nothing. Now today I have hooked up a battery charger to it and had it hooked for a little over 2 hours with no luck. The charger is now hooked as I post this.

My overall question I suppose is what is wrong? Is it the battery going bad or is it the alternator?

1998 Ford Escort SE
211k Miles
New plugs, etc like 6 months ago.

Thanks guys! :/

 

If the battery is defective , it should have started with a good jump. I suspect there is more going on. Need some addl info, do the headlights come on? If they do what do they do when trying to start the car? That check should help determine if the battery and connections are OK. We can go from there.

 

My headlights are manual. So to answer your question I can still turn them on and when I do have them on and try to start the car they don't really do much.

All of my inside lights and things of that nature still come on as well. I can still use the wipers too.

 

So we are on the same page, when we turn the key to the start position the engine should CRANK. When the engine starts running we generally say it STARTS or fires up.
So we get a clear picture of what is happening , I gather your car cranks , but does not start, is this correct? If not, using those terms please describe what is happening.
Does it crank, or cranks but doesn't start or cranks and tries to start. Each one of those conditions requires a different approach. Thanks.

 

I turn the key, it cranks, tries to start but can't. It is now believed by myself and a few others that it is the timing belt.

 

There is a good possibility the belt has either broken or jumped a few teeth. It does require some tools and mechanical ability to check/change it if necessary. Do you think you can handle that? If not, You might want to have someone at least confirm that before getting too involved.

 

It turns out a friend of my dads is pretty good with cars so he is going to do it for me as well as replace the water pump while he is down in there!

 

You might ask the gentleman to run a compression test before he does anything to/on it.