If you can twist the battery terminal and it starts afterwards, you problem is due to a poor connection at the battery. Clean the posts on the battery and replace the cable ends. The clicking you hear is probably the mpi relay. It will click every time you kill power to it.

alright cool. ill clean it up and let you know.

I have had a similar problem where the negative terminal just doesn't have a good connectio and needs to be moved around before the car starts.

Not really that big of a deal. I should replace the negative terminal anyway since it looks pretty ugly.

yup it worked. its amazing how the smallest things you run in to can make you think it's a bigger problem. thanks

THE REAL DEAL said:

yup it worked. its amazing how the smallest things you run in to can make you think it's a bigger problem. thanks

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I am glad it is fixed. You would be amazed at how some of the smallest problems are often overlooked and misdiagnosed. (I have been known to do that before )

yeh my car did that and after awhile of me being lazy and not buyin new wires so they were tight i think it made my battery go up

92awddsm said:

I am glad it is fixed. You would be amazed at how some of the smallest problems are often overlooked and misdiagnosed. (I have been known to do that before )

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I did the same thing also, overlooked the battery ends and thought it was this major problem.

Alright the problem is back. I'm missing work today because of it. I have good connections on the battery this time. I went out to start it this morning and when I tried to turn it over, I lost power. One of the relays under the hood is clicking again. I just put a 5 speed ECU in not too long ago and I checked that. One of the capacitors fried so I replaced it with my old one and it still was doing the same thing.

Something new came up as well. When I have the key out of the ignition, I can hear a fast clicking coming from the passenger side quarter panel. I had no idea anything was in there that could make a clicking sound. I'm gonna go today to buy a new battery and try to fix the connection between the positive and negative wires and terminals.

Now about the 5 speed ECU..... I checked the capacitors before I installed it and they looked and smelled fine. The day I put it in, it started up and ran fine until about 5 or 6 blocks and then the CEL came on and I heard a pop from the ECU. The CEL went away like 2 seconds later but I could smell something burnt. It was running fine until today even with the ECU like that. I put it in about 2-3 weeks ago.

I'll let you guys know what happens when I put in a new battery, fix the terminal connections, and swap in the old ECU.

*edit*
also, when locked the driver side door from the inside, it wouldn't lock the passenger side as well. i also heard some grinding and clicking from under the dash and the lights under the dash would dim in and out when i locked and unlocked it. i'm thinking that may be from the combination of my crappy bulldog remote start/keyless entry and the dead battery. I really wanna take that remote start out but I don't know how to return the wiring back to stock.

New battery + new terminals + new ground cable to firewall = problem solved. Didn't have to replace the ECU. Hope this helps anyone else that has this problem because for me it's been a PITA. We'll see how it holds up in the next couple weeks.