Well last night at 10:30pm I got a wonderful surprise when I needed to come home from work, my car wouldn't start. When I turn the key is just makes this wierd humming/clicky noise. I tried to jump start it, banged on the starter and still nothing. On further inspection I noticed that the starter relay when touched while trying to start the car vibrated. Is this normal? What do you guys/gals think it is? Of course I now have to take part of the day off work to try and figure this thing out. Thanks Jeri
How old is your battery? usually when it clicks, thier isnt enough power for the starter. the solenoid is what clicks. has your battery been dying at all recently? just a thought.
Could be your solenoid. Could be a bad ground from the battery. The cable running from your soleniod to starter could be lose or the cable running from your battery to your soleniod has come lose or maybe the cable to your starter has fallen against the exhaust and burned through. Did you try to jump the soleniod? Either way it goes, with the exception of missing a little work it should be a relative cheap fix. Good luck.
Maverick5946 has covered almost all the basic of what it could be, but the first thing I would try is to clean the battery posts and cables, they could be corroded and not letting your system get power. If that doesn’t help then try everything that maverick5946 has stated.
Well it's kinda embarassing but it was just a really dead battery. A AAA tow truck came today to take it to my friend's garage (I live in an apartment so I can't work on it here) and he wanted to try and jump it before he towed it and after about three tries he got it to start so we concluded that it was indeed the battery. SO I went to Walmart got another battery and voola it started like a champ. Thanks for all the help. Jeri
When a car battery goes dead, a lot of times jump starting it won't work. I think the dead battery may act like a short and the jump current is sucked up by the dead battery. One way around this condition is to disconnect your deadbattery remove the ground cable and if starter and everything else is good, it should start. Jan
I have found that jumper cables are often the problems why a dead battery won't jump. Your "wallmart" specials go with a real thin cable for their jumper cables. I havn't found a battery that won't start with a decent super thick pair of jumper cables. The thin cables overheat and won't conduct much electricity.
If small cables are all you have you can always touch bumpers together and put both cables on the positive posts. This works great on really dead batteries., Oh, and bumpers have to be steel.
Really?? Good idea!!! Oh, and congrats on your 1000'th post mavoholic, a first for this board! I am still a far way off. Take care, Jeremy
Just to let you know the cables I have are ones that I got from a tow truck driver not walmart specials. My battery was completely dead, no charge registered on their charging machine. And I know how to use jumpers, had to learn how before my Mom would let me get a driver's license. Thanks for the info though. Jeri
I=E/R: If you've got a battery with an internal short ( it happens), all or most of your starting current is going to go through that short. When you jump start, you are connecting your batteries in parallel. Sorry, I don't care how big your cables are, ohms law applies.
