'Bout a week ago I try to start and all I got during 1st initial effort is lights on dash but no crank, each try after that I get no lights or power to anything (can't even lock doors) so I jump it successfully and let it run for about 10 minutes thinking I probably have a bad battery. Turn it off, try to restart and no power again. Take battery out to Autozone have it tested and it came back good so I reinstalled battery and cleaned, sandpapered connections and even the ground connection coming from neg terminal. Needless to say, still nothing - I guess my next plan of attack is checking out the computer box connections if I can attempt to find it to look for short - any ideas? It's weird, I came home yesterday and stuck key in it and got dash lights on again BUT then tried to start and everything went dead again and still is. I bought this car used last yr and it came with no owner's manual. I have not had any problems with car other than Engine Light came on after 90,000 (currently 100K) but I attributed that along with mechanic friend insight that it to be the oxygen sensor which tends to make it come on about that time. Will have mechanic friend look at it next week but would like to fix before then.

Figured i'd throw it all out there and see if anyone had an insight on what might be a good plan of attack now?

 

Have the alternator and the wiring for the alternator looked at. I had a similar problem with a cavilier, the battery would go dead with in an hour of it being shut off and wouldn't crank over till it was jumped. Turns out there was a relay in the alternator stuck open just sucking power from the battery.

 

There's a couple possibilities...one, that you have a bad connection somewhere besides the battery, like at the starter, or where the ground goes to the engine block maybe. Second, the voltage regulator is shorted and draining your battery when the car is off. On this car it's probably inside the alternator. Could also be a stuck relay, but this is unlikely.