I drove our 2001 Impala (3.4 L six cylinder) to a place about 9 miles from home today and parked it for about 3 hours. When I got in to go home the dash lights came on when I turned the key to accessories, but when I tried to crank it to start it the dash lights went out EXCEPT FOR THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT THAT STAYED ON, and the engine would not crank, no noise from the starter, just the check engine light on and the dash lights off while the starter was selected.
The battery is an Interstate, proper size for the car, purchased new in May of 2019, and I cleaned the cars terminals by scrapping them with a 1/8 inch regular screwdriver blade until they were shiny everywhere before putting them on the new battery.
I put the trany in neutral in-case the switch for park/neutral was the problem and still nothing when I tried to crank it except the check engine light on.
Someone offered to jump start it with a F150 and there was no change, though the jumper cables he had were not very heavy gauge wire.
My brother showed up with his Nissan Altima hybrid and we jumped started it from the 12 Volt starting battery in his trunk with his heavy gauge jumper cables and it started right up.
I drove it about 8 miles to a local shop that specializes in alternators / starters / and batteries and shut it off, and then tried to start it and it started with no problem.
What does not make sense is that initially when I tried to crank it all the dash lights went out except the check engine light stayed on. If they all went out I would think that the battery Voltage was dropping down to a very low voltage, but the check engine light was on with full normal brightness.
Any ideas of what could be wrong that would cause the dash lights to drop out when I tried to crank it, but leave the check engine light on?
The battery is an Interstate, proper size for the car, purchased new in May of 2019, and I cleaned the cars terminals by scrapping them with a 1/8 inch regular screwdriver blade until they were shiny everywhere before putting them on the new battery.
I put the trany in neutral in-case the switch for park/neutral was the problem and still nothing when I tried to crank it except the check engine light on.
Someone offered to jump start it with a F150 and there was no change, though the jumper cables he had were not very heavy gauge wire.
My brother showed up with his Nissan Altima hybrid and we jumped started it from the 12 Volt starting battery in his trunk with his heavy gauge jumper cables and it started right up.
I drove it about 8 miles to a local shop that specializes in alternators / starters / and batteries and shut it off, and then tried to start it and it started with no problem.
What does not make sense is that initially when I tried to crank it all the dash lights went out except the check engine light stayed on. If they all went out I would think that the battery Voltage was dropping down to a very low voltage, but the check engine light was on with full normal brightness.
Any ideas of what could be wrong that would cause the dash lights to drop out when I tried to crank it, but leave the check engine light on?