Can the cells in a car battery be bad if the car won't start but the interior lights work?

Answer 1

Yes. It can have enough juice to run the lights, but not enough to run / start your car. You can take out your battery and take it to Autozone or any other auto parts store and they can test it for you and they do it for free.

Good luck!

Answer 2

If your battery is defective, or not charged, any lights you may have on, i.e., interior lights or headlights, will usually dim markedly when you attempt to start the car. An interior light, is probably a better measure of battery voltage, because the quartz halogen headlamps that cars have today, are not as voltage sensitive as ordinary incandescent bulbs.

If your lights don't dim at all, when you try to start the car, the defect is most likely elsewhere, e.g., a bad starter, a bad starter solenoid, bad cables, battery terminal corrosion. If the battery is bad, a jump start should work. Please don't conclude, the defect is a function of your battery, because a jump start worked. The combined effect of two batteries, and the output of an alternator, can sometimes overcome marginal defects, enough to start the car at least that one time.

Answer 3

No, when my battery died, the interior lights wouldn't even turn on.

Once when I turned the keys and all I heard was a "click" sound, it ended up being the alternator.

If it's the starter, it would make a winding type of sound, so I've heard..

Answer 4

They can. Does turning the key to start make your lights dim?If not you have a starter relay or solenoid problem.

Answer 5

could be a bad ground wire ...fallow the wires and loosen and then tighten the wires again ...also look for a ground strap from the motor to the body loosen----tighten the same

Answer 6

it possible.