2006 Chevy Impala, won't start clicking noise

by Dayana
(South Gate, CA USA)

My 2006 Chevy Impala won't start, clicking noise when trying to start it but its weird because the light and radio turn on we charged the battery and still do the clicking. I'm worried because I was out of state and I didn't move it for about 4 weeks does that have something to do with it?

Steve Says,

Thanks for using my website. The most likely cause of your problem is a battery problem.

The first thing you should check is your battery cable connections. In the 4 months that you were away they could have corroded so much that now they don't have a good connection. If you want to clean them just remove them from the battery terminals (starting with the ground connection) then pour a combination or water and baking soda (3 water to 1 baking soda or so...not really that important) over the corrosion. Be sure not to do this on a nice floor as it will drain onto the floor. After they are clean use a battery brush to clean the contacts better then reconnect them and charge the battery.

After your terminals are clean you need to have your battery load tested. Even though it was charged and it seems good it can still be bad under a load. Many people think that if their radio clock is on then their battery must be good. This is not the case. It takes very little current to run a radio clock and even an almost dead battery will still keep the clock going. The only real way to check your battery is to have it load tested. You can check the voltage yourself very easily though. You just need a voltmeter. You can get one in my Store if you don't already have one. Basically you just touch the red lead to the positive battery terminal then touch the black lead to the negative battery terminal and read the voltage (you need to have it set to it will read around 12-13 volts). It needs to have 12.65 volts to be fully charged. Many people think that a 12 volt battery should have 12 volts. This is not true. They are fully dead at about 12.25 volts. One way you can do a load test yourself is to leave the voltmeter cables hooked to your battery while you try to start it. The battery voltage should not drop below 10 volts. If it does then you probably have a bad battery.

Almost any auto parts store will do these tests for free but if you want to do them yourself then you can as they are not very hard.

If that checks good then it is most likely a problem with the starter.

I hope this has helped.