can a loose battery cause a car not to start? Options

[homebuilder]

Hi,

My car every once in a while will not start. The starter turns over but it does not catch. Then if I wait a while it will work.

A mechanic looked at it when it did this once, he went under the hood saw my battery was not tied down properly, he moved it over hit the top of the cable and it started. Now I do not know if it was him moving the battery or just the normal, wait a minute and it works.

So anyone else have this problem? Anyone think it is the battery?

I plan to secure the battery anyway, but just wondering if that's really the problem.

[RabidTRD]

Your throttle body is the part that controls air flow into huge intake manifold. To locate it, find your air filter housing and follow the black hose up to the engine. It will have a cable and wheel attatched to it.

What it sounds like to me is that you've got an issue with a internally broken battery cable (probably on the positive side) due to the battery shifting around so much without a hold down. Sluggish chugging and slow start indicates the battery is not getting a charge from the alternator. Best way to test this is to bring it to Advance Auto Parts and have them test it with the EXP-1200 (Midtronics battery, starter, and drain tester). That will tell you if you're getting power to your battery or not. Another thing you can do to test is to attatch a volt meter to the battery terminals and while the car is running, move the battery around a bit and see if the voltage changes. Also if your battery is moving around like that, it's possible it may have shorted out on something under the hood and blown the alternator fuse.

What I would do is to wire brush the terminals and terminal clamps then test for a broken cable.