Electrical issues HELP (2005 Monte Carlo Lt)



About a month ago the passenger in my car left the door cracked and killed the battery , next morning i get up to jump it with some assistance from my dad and long story short he connected the positive cable to my aux connection for my speaker system? (what i was told) and now the car won't start or hold power. When we hook it up to the cables all it does is click , (changed alternator , starter , and battery at the end of 2023) does anyone have any clue?

 

IMO step 1 is to have him show you exactly what he hooked all 4 jumper cable ends up to. I don't know what wire you mean by 'aux connection' as that generally refers to the signal wire that plugs into the 1/8" jack on the radio face which no reasonable adult would ever do.

But since this is the genesis of the issue, its important to start here and find out exactly.

Even with jumper cables to a running car / to a jump box or charger?

Thats probably a good second spot to deep dive. Id have the battery fully tested first (removed from the car, fully charged, load tested).

If the battery is proven good, then Id fully recharge it, put it back in the car, and run a current draw test. If the battery is physically capable of holding a charge, then something in the car is draining the battery at a fast rate. Doing a draw test / isolating circuits will tell you very quickly exactly what circuit that is.


Edit - I also see you have some random blue wire with an disconnected / exposed end laying in the engine bay (presumably a power wire for an amplifier or other high draw equipment). What is the story behind that?

 

Should be this. Mine also says AUX. Theres also another one just a few inches lower.

Not sure youre supposed to use that to jump the car. As I understand it, thats supposed to be used for electrical add-ons.

Thats not to say I have never used it to jump my car. I never had any problems afterwards.

For the future tho, just use the battery's terminals.

 

Ah, that makes sense. No idea what guage wire feeds that, but I agree going straight to the battery is best whenever possible when jumping as the amperage can be very high if the battery is low.


I don't think that really changes my suggested path forward if thats the case. If the car won't start and the battery won't hold juice, I think the best first action is to confirm the battery is actually ok. Id pull it completely, fully charge it (to ensure it actually holds a charge out of the vehicle), then load test it. We need to be 100% sure that battery is good to go before spending any time troubleshooting the vehicle side. Just really feels like a dead cell(s) to me.