Why won't my car start?

#1

I decided to take the cover off the car today and let it run for a while but it won’t start. Its been about 6 weeks since I put anti-freeze in it and let it run for about 20 minutes. Today I turn the key over and nothing. It’s not the battery because I tried jumping it too. All of the electronics seem to work fine just won’t start. I need some trouble shooting ideas.

#2

Put a voltmeter on the battery (12v). Then put the voltmeter on the ignition coil with the ignition on (12v). Then put the voltmeter on the different lines on the junction block (all 12v). Test your ignition cutoff switch (12v). Then move to whatever wire is the hot one on the main relay (12v). My hypothesis is that your battery is dead. Jumping it may not work if the battery’s trashed, right? Maybe I’m wrong about that one.

(edit: substitute test light for voltmeter as well if you don’t have a voltmeter)

#3

My bet is on the cutoff switch.

#4

Yeah, make sure your kill switch is “on”…been there, done that, almost posted about it…

#5

155MPH wrote:

Yeah… those were good times. You mist a whole weekend on VIR North because of it.

That, and I was driving your spare car. B)

#6

I turned the key to the on/run position and all of the dash lights, wipers, fan, everything worked. Then with the key still “on” I turned the kill switch to off and all of the electronics were dead. Would this not indicate that the kill switch was working properly?

#7

if the small wire connection on the kill switch is not connected or broken internally, the certain parts of the car will be powered, but it will not start. I had a cutoff switch die when I tried to take out my racecar last week. Just disconnect a wire and manually make the connection and see if the behavior changes.
bruce

screwynewy wrote:

#8

Ken - I’m going with the dead battery, possible a cell, theory. Have you got another vehicle you can borry the battery from? Easy check to see if that is the problem.
Ed

#9

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I’ll start with the dead battery theory since its the easiest to check and work from there. Of course I can easily check the connections on the kill switch as well.

#10

TheRedBaron wrote:

For what it’s worth,we had a dead/trashed battery in our Z3 and jumping it (directly on the battery, not the terminal under the hood) didn’t do squat… the only solution was a new battery.

#11

Yep, it was a bad battery. I guess 4 years of use and the fact that it was an undersized battery didn’t help matters. It was a group 24 battery with only 425 cca and my new battery has 700 cca. It fired right up first try. Thanks again for the responses.