no go

[wrx666]

Just got home from a months overseas holiday and Yip you guessed it car won\'t start. Plenty of juice in the battery just seems the starter ain\'t doin its stuff. Any tips or tricks to start a car that\'s been sitting for a month. GDA . Tah

[duddley]

Tried hitting the starter motor with a hammer?

[wrx666]

I\'ve given it a few persuasive whacks but no luck. It\'s giving me a click sound when I turn her over which makes my dash lights go on and off and after about 7 or 8 clicks it sounds like the starter does try to turn. Might find a bigger hammer. Bit tired after a 13 plane ride but will have a check again soon.

[Kiwi_Fozze]

Get a charger onto the battery? Or another car jumping it just for a bit extra boost

[Joker]

check the terminals are on tight?

[wrx666]

Yes checked connection but now looking at the battery that previous owner put in it looks like a pretty weak ass lil thing. Which now leads me to an alarm siren that goes off while I try to switch to a larger spare car battery I have. But as I say jet lag has set in so will deal with it later. Thanks for the help guys.

[Guest]

Did you put your tongue across the battery to check juice? If anything it will get rid of the jetlag. Id bet its the battery try jumpstarting.

[Roo]

Lol yep it\'s your battery.

Don\'t bother jump starting it you\'ve dramatically shortened the life by it going flat and staying flat you\'ll just have trouble sooner down the line

[tebbyj]

 Roo said:

Lol yep it\'s your battery.

Don\'t bother jump starting it you\'ve dramatically shortened the life by it going flat and staying flat you\'ll just have trouble sooner down the line

+1 either give that battery a good charge up on a charger or new battery time.

[Guest]

I meant jump start it to check if thats your problem. Not many people have a decent load tester at their dispense and taking it down to the shop means pulling it out of the car. Most people on the other hand do have jump start packs/leads so give it a kick see what happens. Also when its all going with a new bat if that is your problem check to see if you have a draw. 1mo is not a massive amount of time for a battery to go dead its possibly pulling it down somewhere.

[Roo]

Yeah it\'s probably still got enough life for a jumper pack to get it going

[Guest]

Ive jumpstarted my wagon with jumper leads on the battery terminals with no battery in it it wont be an issue. Just need a pretty bloody good connection or they get hot.

[tebbyj]

 evowrx said:

I meant jump start it to check if thats your problem. Not many people have a decent load tester at their dispense and taking it down to the shop means pulling it out of the car. Most people on the other hand do have jump start packs/leads so give it a kick see what happens.

This is true, and it does tell you that the battery is the problem most 99% of the time.

Another way is to connect a voltmeter to the battery and see if the voltage drops under moderate load ie rear-demist + headlights on high beam. A sort of makeshift not very accurate load tester so to speak.

[Joker]

I know my alarm drains my battery slowly over a few weeks if not used

[wrx666]

Once the jet lag wore off I managed to find the alarm code, disengage it and then swap the battery over. Also gave the starter a swift tap with the hammer and she kicked over straight away. Now off for a new set of tyres then wof and rego time.

[Roo]

You did 3 things before you tried it so now you don\'t know what the problem was

[Guest]

 Roo said:

You did 3 things before you tried it so now you don\'t know what the problem was

Thats what I thought lol. Kinda was battery tho...

[wrx666]

^nah it was definately the battery, I just added the bit about the alarm and tapping the starter as I felt like a bit of a goof that it was simply a flat battery :-\