I think part of it is me and part was him. Like I said, he can be an ass, and since I'm not a pro I didn't feel I had enough clout to take over. Plus it was at his house, I didn't have my tools, running out of daylight.
His Avalon wouldn't start. Click, click, click. Could jump it but it was really hard.
The day before I took him to get the battery tested. It was bad, got a new one. Still wouldn't start. I went home.
The next day he replaced the starter with someone else. Still won't start.
Gut is telling me it's a bad ground wire, maybe the supply wire.
I go over that night with a charger and a meter. Make sure the battery is fully charged. We still need a jump to get it started. He wanted to pull the alternator but it didn't sound like an alternator problem to me. I check the output real quick while it's running...14.5v....alternator is fine. It's dark, I go home.
Next day he takes it to the dealer and they replace the negative lead, back in business. We had looked at the leads as best we could, but there was nothing obvious to the eye.
So it was interesting. Good enough connection to show the right voltage, but not good enough to carry starting amps.