Car not starting..

[justinO]

okay... i am at a loss as to why my car is not starting. last week, the battery died, CAA guy said that it was toast so i needed a new one.. it worked for a bit, but then that died as well. I was under the impression that it was probabally the alternator, so i replaced that. tried boosting and the car still wouldnt start. the lights were able to come on, and the starter was able to make one or two revolutions.

any ideas???

[Sunrunner]

Cylinoid (sp) it is small round and attached to the possitive battery cable, Check that maybe?
costs about 20 bucks at Canadian Tire
Kim

[Shane Tesser]

Lol...finally a question on ssnakess right up my alley!!! Guess what i do for a living :)

Okay...so your battery was toast..and the caa guy probably mis-directed you into buying a new one which lead you to replacing the alternator that was the problem in the first place. Ive been there...one of those guys tried to sell me a battery in september...then told me that my alternator was not charging as well....after i informed him that i was a mechanic and then showed him how to read the meter i then declined to buy anything from him...guess what..same battery, same alternator, still everything working....needless to say he was quite embarrassed at the fact that he didn't know how to read the meter properly.

Okay...to make a car run...with or without electronics...here is a brief over view. You need all of these three things...unless its a diesel..you can eliminate one :) You need, fuel, air, and some way to burn it...aka spark. Get rid of all your electronics and everycar still pretty much works the same way. Here is what i would do. I would charge the car again. Make sure if you have a multimeter available to monitor what the battery voltage is while charging...get as close to 12.6 volts as possible. If you dont have a battery charger, turn the key forward and monitor the onboard gauge. Your car should have at least a voltmeter of some sort on the dash. Let the car charge for awhile. You may have pulled the battery down to near zero voltage which will cause the car to not have enough power to turn the starter. You stated that you only got one or two revolutions from the starter. This tells me that you either didn't charge it long enough...or you didnt have proper connection of the booster cables at the batteries...lights or no lights, it takes amperage and lots of it to boost a car. If you try this and it still doesnt work, i would then disconnect the cables and see if you have fuel. Keep the cables off for fire prevention ;)
If its a carburated car...take the air breather off and pull the throttle back..you should see a little stream of fuel going into the carb. If its fuel injected or throttle body, look for the fuel rail around the intake. There should be a test port that looks like a tires air valve. Gently push the centre in with a screw driver...and make sure its gentle..dont break this lol. Have someone crank the car over. If fuel comes out your good...if it doesnt...you need a fuel pump...but i doubt you will have to go this far.

Lets back up a bit before i run off and confuse even myself. Okay..so there is a new battery, there is a new alternator, and there is a starter that barely turns. Lets say for the fun of it, that you actually did boost the car right. Lets say that you installed the new parts..but either a) didnt disconnect the battery while installing it, or B) you might have touched a positive cable to ground. Look at all of your connections. Make sure everything is tight wire wise. Follow some of the wiring to make sure they are not melted. Most vehicles charge wire runs off the alternator directly to the starter..which then runs to the battery. They are three in the same sometimes. Isolate these first, if everything is 100% and your confident its 100% then move onto fuel. If everything is good there...your probably getting a problem with a computer sensor...ie a crank or cam sensor...neither of which is able to pick up top dead centre anymore......but thats a whole new lesson.

Start back at the basics...boost, let it charge while boosting for a bit..then start into wiring etc. Let us know how it goes :)

Hope this didnt confuse you more :D

[Shane Tesser]

Oh yeah...sunrunner. A solenoid is a remotely operated devise used to allow smaller wires to run bigger wires. Developed basically so that gigantic cables would have to run inside your dash. The solenoid that you are talking about would be the starter solenoid. It is located on the starter of the car. Its job is to put positive electrical current into the starter to turn. It is connected to the positive wire off the battery, and is fed through typically the starter relay which comes directly off the key. You had the right idea...just slightly wrong location...and no they are not always 20 bucks. Sometimes you cannot get them seperately. The fact that the starter managed to turn a couple times tells me that the solenoid is working. Should it or the starter be sticking..then he would get nothing at all. :)

[ICULIZARD]

exact same thing happened to me.....turned out it was the alternator and the new battery needed to be re-charged because the alternator had completely drained it.

Hope you figure it out!

[NewLineReptile]

Shane Is 100% on the money. I am also a Mechanic.

Brandon

[justinO]

Many thanks! I suppose i need to buy a battery charger now. I'm not completly inept, i know i have lots of gas :P. how much do chargers cost?

btw, the car is a 97 sunfire. when i was boosting and stuff i did not short anything. a buddy of mine who knows a fair bit about cars helped me install the alternator and the like.

[Shane Tesser]

Probably just a lack of charge problem then Justin. I would just use another running car and let the sucker charge your car for 10 minutes or so...that should do the trick.

Newline...car, truck or heavy equip? Im currently doing heavy equipment...but have worked on cars and heavy trucks...just thought i would get all the licenses i could lol! :)

[justinO]

Also, If i leave the cables on both cars, with the other car running, should that start charging my battery a bit? i mean, just leave it and not try to turn it over for a while?

[justinO]

you answered my question before i posted it! after dinner we will give it a shot! here's hoping. i can't afford anything else!

thanks

Justin

[Shane Tesser]

Yup exactly what you want to do :) ;)

[Shane Tesser]

lol i think we must be on at the same time

[NewLineReptile]

Shane... Car and trucks for me I would like to start Desiel. I am also going through for Trailer tec as well. So many new things to learn.

Brandon

[justinO]

Hey, it worked :).. car starts and i left my car on for about 10 minutes to build up more charge.. anyways, just wanted to say thanks Shane, I really appreciate it.

cheers.

Justin

[Sunrunner]

Well I tried :P hmmmm
screw you guys................. (best eric cartman voice)
;)
I am glad it worked now which one of you wanna come to my house to work on my van? ;)