Please help! car won't start, no power, but can be jumped (edit: fixed now)
 

Drove fine for 2 hours, last 10min of that in blinding rain, stopped at gas station, left lights on, tried to start car 5 min later - dead, no power to anything.

Got a jump - started up instantly - closed hood - died completely like it was before. Did it again, same result. Did it third time, gently closed hood, car stayed on, drove for another 2 hours, shut off car, now it is again as dead as before. I have no power to lights or anything else when car is off. The security light sometimes intermittently flashes when I stick the keys in, but it's a very random pattern.

Any ideas? I'm 160 miles from home so very limited tool access - no voltmeter. I don't think it's the battery because it started right away when I tried to jump - no charge-up time. Any possibilty for blown fuses? I checked most of the ones in the panel next to the battery and a few under the wheel.

Baterry is prob it, if not then alternator
have check out at autozone

Forgot to add - battery is about 6 months old - WalMart job, but still shouldn't die that quickly esp after a 2hr drive, unless as you say the alternator is dead.

Sounds to me like your cables are loose or coroded on your terminal. I have had almost this same situation happen to me, I found that if I took off my cables from my terminals, cleaned both the cables and the terminals then reattached them and tightened them down that this fixed the problem.

u maybe have loose terminals......by bet is that its the alternator, i've had two die on me in my life (not on maximas, of course) and both times it makes the car completely limp, no power to anything

tightened both terminals and it seems to be OK now - will clean them up once I get back home - thanks for the help!

I'll agree with the battery also.

The newer alternators need power to make power (go figure). Power is needed from the battery for excitation current to make the alternator produce power. I'm an electrician by trade. (alt just a 3 phase motor recitified to 12v)

If you have a bad battery post (defect - poor/no connection internally) the current will be intermittant.

I was helping a guy start his cavalier (not swearing i hope :laugh: ) and hit post would come loose and fall off the battery ! Died every time the cables were removed.

Hope this helps , martin :)