I have a 98 plymouth neon expresso thursday I went to start my car after work and had a clicking sound when trying to start my car like my battery was dead then I tried it again and it started up but with a hesitation like my battery wasn't fully charged I bought a new battery yesterday and it hesitated to start but not as bad before,now it seems like when it sits for awhile it would hesitate but when I would shut the car off and start it right back up it's ok.My question is,is this a altinator going bad or could this be something else I was under the impression that when a altinator goes it kills the battery right away.any help would be great.

 

A failing alternator won't necessary immediately kill the battery. One of two things I suspect: starter going bad and/or you have a bad battery cable. First thing to do would be to check & clean both ends of the pos & neg cables/terminals. Be especially alert for signs of corrosion where the cable enters the terminal ends.

How old was the battery that you replaced and did you have it tested before replacement?

 

The word "hesitation" is what might be confusing because normally if I hear that word, I simply think of a vehicle that just doesn't fire off. Nothing to do with how the starter turns over. If you had somethig wrong with the battery/12 volts from terminal, you would notice either clicking, or, the battery turning over slowly. That would be more descript.

So, after you replaced the battery with a new one, did it turn over slowly and take a while to then fire because of that?, or did the car turn over like normal speed, but simply not fire off right away?

Another thought crossed my mind, if your word hesitation simply refers to slower starter speed and that is that IF the connections are good at both the new battery and starter, that maybe your starter is going - or that the starter is binding on the flywheel (although this seems doubtful unless you said this occured right after you put in a new starter), or if you were losing antifreeze, that perhaps a cylinder is partially hydrolocking on you, or you have some other internal problem causing a bind. You could try rotating the engine by hand, with or without the plugs pulled to check that out if other checks do not seem to find your problem.

It PROBABLY is electrical related, but wanted to mention the various possibilities as all this stuff has happened to cars and can cause what you have.

You might want to also have someone try to start your car while you know this happens while you see what the headlight power does also while trying to start