Twice this month I've had my 90 245 not want to even attempt to crank. I have tested with volt meter the battery at about 9V I believe or lower maybe on each occasion. My starter at times makes the horrid noise of not engaging on the odd occasion, about every once a week or so. But no excessive cranking is needed.

First time it happened I had turned the car off while at the bank's drive thru. I had driven a good 30 minutes on the freeway and it was hot out in the 90's. I opened up the battery after checking its voltage and added a little water along with some crushed aspirin. It hesitantly cranked but caught.

Same thing happened the other day. Battery low on volts and added the aspirin and it cranked fine. That was after eating lunch and only driving maybe 5 minutes from work. The battery is only 2 years old but did have some excessive wear and was needing jumped when I got the car new to me in January. The past owner had a bad main fuel pump and that constant cranking to try and start it was not good on it.

I've talked to Wal-mart where the battery came from and they told me if its dead I could swap it without a receipt. But I'm afraid of just leaving the lights on to kill it so I can take it in to just have them recharge and find its fine under load.

Can a bad solenoid on the starter actually take more juice from the battery on occasion and cause it to just die on the attempt. Like the starter doesn't do anything but drain the battery when turning the key or should I just believe its a bad battery and exchange it. I'm heading out on a 3 day trip this weekend. Kind of want to resolve it soon. Thanks.