Grr and Argh.

[xell]

I'm totally stranded in a truly outrageous way! This morning, after the bitter chill blew in, my car wouldn't start. It hasn't started all day. *sigh

Comments

[brian_s]

I'm pretty much in your shoes regarding cars (there are 'parts' under the hood, and sometimes those parts break and I need to pay people to fix them), but there's a fairly simple way to see if it's your battery. Without turning on the engine (but with the car in start), turn on the overhead lights and radio and see if the lights look dim or the radio isn't working. If the lights are dim, that's a sign that the battery may be dead/dying. You can probably get a jump start if that's the case and it should work for until you have to turn the car off again. If it is the battery that's fairly easy to replace; batteries are usually right under the hood and don't require any mucking about under the car. Good luck! Hopefully it might just be the cold.

[xell]

It's been so long, I honestly don't remember the specifics of what happened. *laughs* Things worked out, and the main reason I made this post was because I was stranded in the house alone and I had nothing else to think about other than my current situation. Woots. ^_^;

But thanks for the advice!

~XellE

[delamorte77]

If it tries to turn over but just barely does, it probably needs a jump. If it starts with a jump, drive it to autozone or similar, have them check it, do not turn it off till they say you can, otherwise you may be stranded there. You probably need a new battery.

If turns over well, but just doesn't fire, it could be a few other things..fuel pump..dead plug maybe but unlikely...

If it's a starter...it would probably just click, and not turn over..or you would hear a little motor sound but the car itself wouldn't turn over..or worse, grinding when you turn the key.

Sounds like a battery problem to me. Give it a jump first and see if it starts.

Don't you have a boyfriend?

[xell]

Well, the boyfriend and I managed to give it a jump after I got home that night. Neither of us knew what we were doing, but he tried his best. He was shocked a couple of times because the clamps were touched together in places they shouldn't be, and he almost put a charged clamp on the wet ground before I stopped him - but! We got it taken care of. After the jump, we got the battery tested out and it was fine, according to O'Rielly's.

Since then it's been running okay, with the odd noise here or there. I'm thinking about taking it to that auto place you recommended to me a while back that's in the Collinsville area. I just got my student loans in, and I'm thinking about getting it checked out just to make sure everything's still in decent condition. It has more than 120k miles on it now, so I'm trying to be cautious. I love my car in the way that it gets me where I need to go with fair dependability, and I'd like to continue to facilitate this. ^_^;

Thanks for the advice!

~Xellxell

[bradzerker]

Did you try jumping it like I told you too? If it fires up when jumped, it's probably a battery problem. Take it to Autozone or O'Rielly's or any other auto parts place and they will test the battery for FREE. If you buy a new battery there (probably $40-$60), they will also install it for FREE.

[xell]

Yeah, when I went to O'Rielly's (as I've generally had better customer service there than Auto Zone) this poor guy named Dustin went out and tested my battery without a coat in the zero degree weather. Now THAT is dedication. But nothing was wrong with the battery, so I guess the problem just fixed itself after a very haphazzard session of trying to jump the car. It was scary. o.o;

~Xellie

[drowned_ophelia]

Batteries are really easy to replace (even I can do it, and I'm a stupid girl, gosh), and pretty darn cheap as well.

[xell]

Yeah, the batteries at O'Rielly's (sp?) were even cheaper than I remember. I also got some cheapy jumper cables for less than $10, although they didn't seem to do their primary function of clamping all that well. XD;

XDellX