My 2003 ES had a dead battery in a parking lot, and I couldn't find my jumpers so I replaced it. Now with the brand new battery (and a brand new starter as well) the car won't start. it won't even give me enough power to run the dome light. I thought maybe I got a faulty battery so I switched with my truck battery and it still wouldn't work. The only way to get the car to start is to jump start it (or put two batteries in line) and then it will only run for a short time and then die.

Any thoughts would be helpful. I've already checked all the fuses and they are good and the alternator checks out as well. The battery is checking out on my multimeter at over 12v and the cables have good connections. I'm just completely stumped, I've never seen a car do anything like this before.

 

Have you tried getting a voltage reading from a OBD2 scan tool?

 

Check the clamps that go over your terminals. They could be bad. Seems like you're not getting proper contact. I just had some similar issues and replaced the negative one since it was messed up from corrosion. The car starts every time.

 

as it turns out, it was a fried ignition switch. I started sorting through wiring diagrams and found the testing for it and sure enough, when in the "on" position it jumped all over the meter (it's supposed to read 2 ohms or less).