Car Starting Problems

While it may be any number of other things, having a mismatched or failed computer chip in the key will give you the symptoms you describe...and considering the fact that you just changed the ignition, that'd be a good place to start.

I had the same problem with my 95. Normally, If you turn the ignition on, (not where you turn the engine over) you should hear the fuel pump "humm" for a second or two. If you don't, then your fuel pump switch/relay may be bad. The switch/relay is located in the fuse box under the hood on the driver side. Just to get by I would give the fusebox a hard tap with my nuckles as if I was knocking on someones door. If the ignition is still turned on as I wrote above, you'll hear the fuel pump kick in. The truck can now be started. This is a quick fix however. Replace the switch/relay as soon as possible.

The red battery light indicates that the battery is not rceiving sufficient charge. Look for a loose belt or loose/dirty battery cable connection, or have the alternator and/or battery checked.

The system uses five wires and a receiver or antenna wire that accepts the signal from the remote. A blue wire, a purple wire, a pink wire, a red wire, and a black wire. The black wire of course is the ground. The pink and red wires are set up with a vampire bite to the constant power and the ignition power. Red to constant, and pink to ignition which gets power from the "run" position when the key is so turned to it. I can't remember right now which one of the blue or purple that is connected off the vehicle harness or which one gets connected to the "start" function of turning the key, but it honestly doesn't matter because these two are the ones that conduct the "magic." In my car, a yellow wire that connects the "start" function to the starter was cut and one of those wires is connected from the main harness and the other to the starter connector at the steering column. The idea is that electrical current will attempt to travel to the starter but is routed to the pass time unit to check if the code is current, if it is the connection is made and the car starts, if not, then the circuit is not able to close and you will get no power to the starter. To bypass this, simply cut the two wires that re route that current and splice them back together leaving the pass time unit out of the routing completely. If your pass time unit is a GPS enabled one, I would suggest not tampering, but if you must, do not disconnect the unit altogether, just leave the red, black and pink wires connected so that the system can communicate that it is powered back to the company that is responsible for the surveillance of that communication.

I Have a 1997 VW Cabrio, which is esseintially a convertable Jetta/Golf. I purchased the car used & it had an aftermarket stereo in it when I purchased it and the stock alarm worked. I think it is possible, because your stereo was stolen & The wires were cut, you may not be using a wiring harness. Using the appropriate harness is probably the key to having your alarm work w/the aftermarket stereo. My suggestion is to have the aftermarket stereo proffesionally installed. VW's, in my experience, tend to be picky machines, even though I love them. Before having the Pioneer installed it also may be wise to check your local salvage yards that have either a Jetta, Golf or Cabrio with the same configuration of your model and cut the factory harness out of the wrecked vehicle. If you take that to a stereo shop or VW dealership/Import professional they could wire that in, so that the appropriate harness to convert your stock stereo wiring to a pioneer could be accomplishied by simply pluging your stock harness into an aftermaket harness to fit your new pioneer stereo. I know it may sound complicated by the way I am describing this to you, but it really isn't. Finding the stock harness, ,which I would bet was stolen w/your stereo may be the most difficult hurdle for you. If you can't find one locally, there are search engines online for salvage yards and you could find on that way. A note of intrest for you regarding installing aftermaket stereos into VWs: The heat vents in my 97 run directly above the head unit and if you run your heater for a while, like during winter, the heated air blowing out directly above your stereo may cause problems. Just another VW quirk. I had to have small cooling fans installed on my stereo b/c the heater would overheat my stereo if I drove the car for aprox. over an hour or more. I'd hate to see you get the stereo installed properly, have the alarm working correctly & then boom, your stereo dies b/c it overheated. You can tell when your stereo overheats b/c you can "hear" it. I definitely suggested having these cooling fans installed to protect your investment. I wiswh I could explain this better, but when it comes down to it, you need that stock harness & it would be wise to have the new stereo proffesionally installed, even if you know how. VWs can be picky & this is one of those things your better off to have a professional handle. It will avoid alot of frustration, & in the end will probably save you money. Good luck. I wish I could help more.

cause the battery is dead, you ran out of gas you did not put in park before you tried to start it , somebody put water in your gas tank. A better description would get you better answers.

it's something else in the engine, you need to take it to a mechanic

My 2000 GMC Jimmy is slow cranking. The battery voltage meter is showing charged so I am assuming that the starter is the problem. Where do I find the starter to remove it?

depends. if there is a clicking noise than it could be the starter. but it could also be that your battery needs a jolt of juice. try to start the car with jumper cbles first and if that doesn't work then it is prob the starter probably , the battery is down

we had to go to the renault garage it cost something like £170 for a new key and code because the old one had stopped working. they've got you over a barrel.

Well, you figure about 200 for the new starter and allow up 200 for labor. It depends on the stuff that has to be moved to get to it. Also depends on the area of the country you live in for labor rates. They vary. It is a little less if you get a remanufactured starter, but that is your call. Good luck.

I have a 1998 Sable that has had the same problem. Every time it has been caused by a leak in a vacume tube. It has been replaced 3 times now on my car.

Wrong timing or dirty plugs.

Can be a multitude of causes usually due to incomplete combustion from an unbalanced air/fuel mix, poor spark delivery or lack of compression resulting in a slight miss or misfire which sends unburned fuel to "pop off" in your exhaust. Some is to be expected and normal, for example a sudden change in throttle position, like decelerating but it should not be routine. Start by checking for spark, have codes read if CEL is on and then move on to compression test if that looks good. If it's cylinder specific (code points to specific cylinder) , Check plug and wire on that cylinder/ Check plug gap and if any are fouled. Pull them one at a time if you have to to isolate cylinder (use insulated tool) Good luck.

the wire on the little peg is on the wrong one ther should be one directly across put it on that one to engage your starter

Yes it can as long as the battery is charged . The purpose of the alternator is to put the power used back into the battery.

When you turn the key, does the car just click...or do you hear cranking too? If all you hear is a click, it's a starter problem. Something that's easy to try is to get under the car with a hammer and LIGHTLY!!!! tap the starter while someone tries to crank the engine. A lot of times they just stick, and doing this will clear them up.

If you hook up the cables right (positive to positive, negative to negative) you should not do any damage. If you hook the cables up wrong, you risk damaging your cars electronics.

timeing is off,no spark(power to the plugs but not threw them),cracked distrib.cap.bad stator in distrib. It is highly recommended that starting fluid (ether) never be used in throtle body gasoline engines unless one is very highly quaified in engine maintenance proceedures. Ether is a very volitile flamable liquid. Using it can cause serious engine damage not to mention bodily harm. Before using any type of starting liquids check to make sure there voltage flowing between the spark plug wires and the spark plugs. If there is no voltage there or the voltage reads much below 16k volts there simply may not be enough to overcome the resistance of the resistor type spark plugs that are used in all cars today. Most newer cars since the early 1980s have aluminum cylinder heads. Using starting fluids can cause serious damage to aluminum cylinder heads. There are a whole aray of electrical reasons that an engine does not start with or without starting fluid. ALL these potential reason should be checked before even thinking about using any type of starting fluid.

Since this is such a generalized question, the answer will also be so. Usually the starter is located on the lower rear of the engine block. Since many vehicles today utilize "transverse," or crosswise mounted engines, one might ask the question, what is the rear of the engine. That is the end which attaches to the "bell housing" and transmission, and is opposite to the end on which the water pump, alternator, belts, etc. are mounted. To assist in identifying the starter, they are generally cylindrical in shape, and depending on the engine size, starters vary in diameter from about three inches to about eight inches. Their length varies from about six or eight inches to about ten or twelve inches. Also, many starters will have a "starter SOLENOID" mounted on top. The starter solenoid will also be cylindrical in shape, but smaller than the starter itself. j3h.

Almost always the fuel pump. Slight chance of the injector, but normally the fuel pump.

Check for a vacuum leak somewhere. It might just be a cracked rubber vacuum line. Try short sprays of starting fluid at or near a suspected vacuum leak. You'll hear the engine idle speed change immediately if you find a leak.

is Nissan armada vehicle won't start

I had the identical problem with my 96 I30 after letting it sit for a year and after recharging the battery. I have 343,600 miles on mine and I'm the original and only owner. I downloaded the schematic diagrams for the electrical system. I took out fuse #17 (10 Amp) which basically shut down the anti-theft (start) and it still didn't start. After checking that fuse #33 (7.5 Amp) was good, I replaced the starter (very first one) and it's working fine. The only other thing it could be is the inhibitor switch (Park or Neutral switch) so try both positions and if it doesn't start in either Park or Neutral, it's probably the starter. Bought the starter brand new on Ebay for $75 delivered!

you have leak somewhere

2004 mercedes truck wont start sometimes. Why