My car won't start! Grrr....

[Kid Charlemagne]

I could use some mechanic advice...

I got home from work today, got off the train and my car wouldn't start. I sit down, put they key in, and everything seems OK - interior lights come on, seat belt light blinks at me, etc.

As soon as I turn the key, every thing goes dark. Not even much of a click-click-click.

But here's the weird thing: out of frustration I hit the steering wheel, and all the lights come back on. Time on the radio has reset to 1:00.

Turn the key again. Everything goes dark. Pound steering wheel. Lights come on. Repeat multiple times.

At some point, I was actually able to get the car to start. I drove around a bit, but when I got home and turned the car off, I couldn't start it again. I wasn't able to attempt a push-start (its a stick shift 98 Honda Civic) with the snow on the ground; too slippery.

I replaced the battery a year ago, but Jiffy Lube said it was providing marginal juice last time I went in for an oil change. Could it just be a bad battery (I hope)? Or is it some kind of electrical short that I'll have to look into more deeply (and probably take in to the dealer)?

EDIT: Closer examination reveals that it was the oldest problem in the book: One of the battery cables had come loose and was just barely touching the terminal. Fitted it back onto the terminal, and VROOM!

KC is a happy boy.

 

[ssampier]

I am not mechanic, but have you checked your alternator? Basically when your car runs, it charges the battery. If your battery is constantly dead, that'd be the first place I'd look.

 

[Merkuri]

Yeah, I'm not a car person, but I am a computer/electronics person and that sounded like bad wiring somewhere to me. If it works when you hit it but not otherwise then something has a bad connection and you are knocking it into place briefly with "percussive maitinence".

 

[GlassJaw]

Could be alternator. Translation: $$

 

[bento]

A loose cable is a lot better news than "That will be $352 Mr. Kid Charlemagne. Will that be cash, check or card?"

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

A loose cable is a lot better news than "That will be $352 Mr. Kid Charlemagne. Will that be cash, check or card?"

Ain't that the truth! I did a little hop and clicked my heels together when I realized that's all it was!

 

[Pbartender]

EDIT: Closer examination reveals that it was the oldest problem in the book: One of the battery cables had come loose and was just barely touching the terminal. Fitted it back onto the terminal, and VROOM!

KC is a happy boy.

Excellent.

Reading through the symptoms, I was just about to suggest checking your wiring... Intermittent elecrical problems that come and go with movement, position or jostling are almost always due to frayed or loose wiring.

I once had a car that would flash it's "OIL PRESSURE" light whenever I'd drive down hill, and later whenever I'd make a left-hand turn, the windshield wipers would wipe twice, only twice and then stop. In both cases the problem was a dangling wire that was occasionally swinging and grounding itself out on someother part of the car.

 

[Merkuri]

I once had a car that would flash it's "OIL PRESSURE" light whenever I'd drive down hill, and later whenever I'd make a left-hand turn, the windshield wipers would wipe twice, only twice and then stop. In both cases the problem was a dangling wire that was occasionally swinging and grounding itself out on someother part of the car.

Lol, now that's an awesome car. You should've told people it was posessed.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I once had a car that would flash it's "OIL PRESSURE" light whenever I'd drive down hill, and later whenever I'd make a left-hand turn, the windshield wipers would wipe twice, only twice and then stop. In both cases the problem was a dangling wire that was occasionally swinging and grounding itself out on someother part of the car.

I had a friend in high school who had a '64 Carmen Ghia that was held together with bondo and duct tape. At one point, the passenger side door stopped latching, so he had to lash a rope around the steering column and tie it to the door handle so that the passengers wouldn't go flying out the side door whenever he took a left-hand turn.

He also had a tape player hooked up inside his glove compartment, and whenever he slowed down to take a turn, the tape player would slow down, too.

Later on, that same friend had a VW Bug that had rusted-out floorboards - he stole a stopsign off a road somewhere and soldered it to the floor.

 

[Pbartender]

Lol, now that's an awesome car. You should've told people it was posessed.

This was the same car that had dashboard lights that wouldn't always turn on if got really cold in the winter... pound on the dashbord and the lights would flicker once or twice before turning on.

It was a 1984 Pontiac Parisienne Station Wagon with nearly 300,000 miles on it... most of the car was spare parts by that time. We nicknamed it the "Millenium Wagon".