15 Key Reasons Why Your Car May Not Start
One unfortunate thing is waking up in the morning, you are all ready to go, and your car just won’t start. Any of these 15 reasons may be the reason why and a few tips of how to overcome them.
1. Your Gas Tank is Empty
You may have gone out with friends the night before and the chore of stopping at the gas station is kind of a dreary thing to do. You kept postponing until you finally got home. Overnight all the fuel drained out of the pipes. Starting the car now becomes difficult because of too little fuel in the tank.
Ensure that you have a refill level and always go by that rule. Never let the fuel go beyond that level. Force yourself not to procrastinate. Most of the time the inconvenience far outweighs the little convenience of not filling on time.
2. Your Battery Clamps Are Too Loose
One main cause of cars not starting could be dead batteries. In most cases, the battery may not be dead but the clamps are loosely pegged unto the battery terminals
With a pair of pliers, you could tighten the clamps and try starting again. Before tightening the clamps, ensure there are no acid build up on the terminals. If there are, just use water to wash off the terminals before fastening the clamps.
3. Dirty Battery Clamps and Terminals
Acid leaks from the battery normally forms a whitish, greenish substance on both the terminal and the clamps. This can stand in the way of the clamps getting direct contact with the terminal.
In cases like this, remove the clamps and clean both the terminal and the clamps with an iron brush like this. It’s good to have such tools handy. You could also use sand paper, or a hard brush. After, fix back your clamp using a tool like this. I believe you can get a good start and get going.
4. Your Battery Could Be Dead
After cleaning the clamps and the terminals, if you still could not get a start, it’s likely your battery may be dead. Check if you are getting a faint or bright ignition lights on your dashboard. If the ignition is bright, start and listen if you are getting a good and loud engine crank. If the ignition light is dull, and your crank is low, its quite obvious your battery is gone.
If you keep a handy jumper cables like this one, you could find a neighbour or another motorist to give your battery a jolt. You may also use a jumper battery like this one.
If you are successful, its time to see your electrician to evaluate your battery to ascertain whether you need a need one. There are various batteries that suites different ranges of cars like these ones.
5. The starter Won’t Crank
Your car starter is connected to your car battery and that’s what cranks and turns the engine to set it in motion. When you turn your key, or press the push button and there is some horrible sound then it’s time to see your mechanic.
In manual cars, you can easily overcome this with a slight push. This serves the same way as a means of jolting the engine into action. Unfortunately, such can’t be done with automatic cars.
Before your starter finally goes off, it may have given you some signs of one or two misses when you were sparking. It is better to have a look quickly at that early time to avoid a total fatal condition.
6. Faulty Fuel Pump or Relay
When you realise your car is no more driving smoothly but occasionally jerks and sputters, then it may be the fault of your fuel pump or the fuel pump relay.
Your fuel pump is responsible for continuous supply of fuel for combustion in the engine, where the flow is intermittently disrupted due to dirt and other mechanical fault in the pump,
7. Your Car Key or Push Button May Be The Key
Most cars of late use push-button and in most push button cars you need to have the key fob either close to you or inside the car somewhere. If this happens to be too far away, your car may not start. Always have a designated place where you keep these handy items using a key hanger like. This will afford you a quick pick each time you are driving out.
8. A Dead Key FOB
Your car may not start not because you have a weak battery but rather a dead battery in your key fob. In a situation like this, refer to the owner’s manual to figure out how you could spark it without the key fob. If you don’t have a physical manual, go online, most manufacturers nowadays have their manuals online.
Your dealer or mechanic could later help you to replace the battery in your key fob.
9. You May Be In Drive Mode
There are couple of times that we stop and forget to put the gear lever in park mode. Presumably, we jump back into the car and start sparking while in drive mode. Each time your car is not starting, don’t get too anxious, take your time and check every thing one at a time.
Each time you stop, ensure to shift to park mode. This can be dangerous if parked on a little hilly road without your hand break also pulled.
10. Your Engine May Be Flooded with Fuel
In old manual cars, one may need to be pumping the accelerator while starting. This pumps fuel quickly to the plugs for a quick start. Contrary to modern push button cars, continuous press of the accelerator during sparking floods the plugs with fuel and rather discourage the car from starting due to excessively wet plugs.
When such thing happen, stop starting for about 10 minutes for the fuel to drain and try again. This time around, just start without any pumping.
11. It’s Time for a New Timing Belt
The timing belt inter connect pulleys around the engine and assist in turning the engine’s crankshaft etc. A broken belt can cause serious damage to the engine. In the event of a broken belt, stop starting and call a tow car.
It is advised by specialist that, you should always replace your belt each time you are servicing your vehicle or have it checked.
12. It’s May Be The Computer System
Most modern cars of today are using one form of a computerised system or the other. Most of these systems are responsible for electronic communication between various electronic parts in your car. A malfunctioning system could stop your car from starting.
In situations like this, you need to mount an electronic fault detector like this one. This scans the entire electronic system and reports back any problem that may be causing this issue.
13. Your Seat Belt Could Be the Cause
Most vehicle manufacturers are taking safety a notch higher. Most current cars won’t spark when the seat belts are not fasten, especially the driver’s.
In most cases, a glare warning sign will be indicated on your dashboard telling you to fasten your seat belt. It is important to pay attention to your car’s dashboard each time you are having one disruption or the other. Most modern cars are very communicative and the dashboard is mostly their communication portal.
14. Press Your Clutch Far Enough
Manual transmission cars uses a clutch and when the gear is engaged and you don’t press the clutch down enough it may not start. To avoid this from happening, each time you park, you can disengage the gear to neutral and pull your hand breaks. In that wise, each time you come, your car will start comfortably.
15. The Key is Stacked and won’t Turn
Most cars steering wheel are fitted with an anti-theft mechanism which automatically locks the steering when the car is parked. Most times, this mechanism gets a bit stacked and won’t turn. When it happens, try nudging the steering from left to right while you turn the keys. With just about 2 or 3 nudges the locks will free and you can start.