Why won't my car start?

Answer 1

You need to isolate the problem. Simply making the statement: "My car won't start. What's wrong?" will not result in many people wanting to give you any help. (Unless you're an attractive young lady, stranded on the side of the road! ;)

Any number of things can contribute to your car not starting up: 1. No gasoline in the tank

2. Dead Battery

3. Missing or worn out spark plugs and/or spark plug wires

4. Defective fuel pump

5. No oil in the crankcase (siezed engine)

6. Loose nut behind the steering wheel (Operator error)

7. Defective starter motor

8. Not depressing the clutch in a manual shift car

9. Transmission selector not in neutral or park in an automatic shift car The list goes on and on. These are just a few things to check.

MORE INFORMATION I can guarantee that it's electrical or mechanical.

Sorry to sound flippant, but the reality is, there are quite a few problems that can cause the problem; without additional information there is just no way to know for certain.

To help isolate the problem:

try using a little starting fluid, see if you can start the engine briefly with that. If the engine isn't getting fuel the starting fluid will let it run briefly, and it will verify that everything else is working properly. Once you do that you have eliminated a whole list of other potential problems.

If the starting fluid is used properly and the engine doesn't start, check for spark. Pull a plug wire and connect it to a spare sparkplug. (hint: it doesn't even need to be a sparkplug that fits your car) Have a friend try to start the car and watch the sparkplug to verify that you're getting a good, strong spark. If not, you can go from there.

If you have spark AND starting fluid didn't tell you anything, run a compression test. Poor compression indicates something SERIOUS inside the engine.

The point is, you need to isolate the problem.

Simply making the statement: "My car won't start. What's wrong?" will not result in many people wanting to give you any help, unless you're an attractive young lady, stranded on the side of the road.

Well there could be numerous reasons why your car wont start, but if its turning over or ticking it may be your battery, or check your starter and or fuses!