I have a 96 SE that failed to start last night. I have a somewhat long drive way and I tried to kick/jump start it with my wife behind the wheel. It didn't work - that was her first time trying that.
I got up this morning and took the battery out of the car because I thought it could be bad. It was 60% charged and corroded like a beast. After getting it charged, cleaned up and protecting the terminals I put it back in the car. Again, nothing. We tried to kick-start it again and it worked this time; I drove the car around and it seemed fine (I even burnt a little rubber ). I turned it off in my driveway and tried to start it again. Nothing! The lights are on in the dash and it isn't even clicking or anything.
I'm assuming the starter is gone. What do you guys think? If it is the starter, how hard are they to replace? If it is too much I will just have to push it again and take it to a mechanic.
Is there any other way I can test things out before taking it in?

 

Your alternator is dead and it's not charging the battery. Welcome to the club - my alty died few weeks ago. I went to mechanic to replace it and the one they installed failed in 5 minutes, so they put a different one and now my car vibrates constantly. Bad luck with alternators. Get the one with lifetime warranty however the best thing to do is to get a new alternator at the dealership.

 

My car did the exact same thing except it was the starter that was acting up. You can't automatically assume it is the alternator. Best thing to do is with the car running put a voltmeter to the battery terminals, if it is getting 13-14 volts then the alternator is good. There is another post titled "car won't start even when jumped" look there too.