2004 Aerio

[SpaceCowboy706]

I'm new here and I have been trying to find a solution to the problem I am having. I am able to find many vague referrences to it, but no fatcs, so any help I could get would be greatly appreciated.

But let me start over and say that I bought the 2004 Aerio "from a Used car dealership" last year with almost 8,000 Miles on it for around $7500 after financing. Since then I have not had a single problem and the car has performed superbly, up until today.

The scenario I encountered is as follows:

We keep the car parked in a covered parking spot all day and at around 3:00 PM she went and picked the kids up from school. The temperature outside was at 107 Farenheit according to the news man and she drove about 10 miles total with the AC on full blast as you can expect. When she got close to the house she stopped at a convienence store and turned the car off. When she came back out she went to start the car and nothing happened. The engine wouldn't crank or anything. The only thing that would happen was the daytime running lights would come on and the radio display would read " S Y S ".

Luckilly she was close to home so she just took the kids and walked home. I got home aorund 8:00 PM in the evening and went to the car and checked the voltage on the battery and it was at 13.1 VDC. So I started it up just fine and, so far it has continued to work as fine, as it has for the full year since we purchased it.

I have read a few articles about Bad Hot Start Faults across the internet but no one ever responds to the posts, so I figured i would offer my fulll story and see if I could have some success... If that is even what I am experiencing.. If it may be something else please can you point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance?

[TimMcCabe]

Check the ground strap from the battery to the transmission, I've seen them corroded, or even broken where it bolts to the trans housing. This can cause the problem you are having.

Cheers,

Tim

[SpaceCowboy706]

OUTSTANDING... I will check it out tonight when my wife gets home.

[Anarius]

The ground strap is a likly cause, but if that doesn't fix the problem, crawl under and look at the positive, negative, and ground on the car. If you can't see the either loose or broken, take the car to your local autoparts chain (murrays, advance, autozone, Checkers, etc) most stores can do a 'midtronics' on-car electrical test that will load test your battery, and also check the starter's draw and the alternators charging ability.