Given how cold it is out I thought it was the Battery.
But then, two hours later, the car started fine.
Is it the battery? Plugs? Distributor Cap?
Flat spot on the starter.? My only expertise is having been there/done that.
My problem happened when engine was hot then turned off then tried to start again. It had to cool down to try again.
You could have the alternator checked out. It might be getting ready to shit the bed.
There are many degrees of “not starting.”
Some are:
“Nothing."
Not cranking
Not “catching.”
I think you can do free battery tests at the big auto parts chains, for example Autozone:
You’re right. The down side is… if it won’t start in their parking lot, you’re stuck there ( or you have to get it towed from there ).
The battery is, for the most part, either bad or it’s not. Wouldn’t lead to an intermittent issue.
If the alternator was bad, not only would it not start, but it also wouldn’t start two hours later. It wouldn’t start until the battery was recharged or replaced.
I’m gonna guess it’s a loose or corroded connection on the battery cables. Could also be the starter.
I recently had that problem with my elderly pick up.
Turned out it was nothing already mentioned.
The linkage between the gear selector (it’s an automatic) and the transmission was damaged/failing. The safety interlock that prevented starting it unless it was in Park worked as designed, so if the gears weren’t properly set it wouldn’t start. Which… is fine in that I wouldn’t want to start it and find myself suddenly going backward. Had to jimmy the gear selector around to get it started, making starting very intermittent especially when you didn’t know what was going on.
Turned out it was fixable for a reasonable price.
Not saying that’s the problem, nor do I know how old your car is (this is, apparently, more a problem with elderly vehicles) but sometimes the cause is a bit out of the ordinary. Check for the obvious first, but if you can’t find anything keep looking.
One of our secondhand cars did that and nobody could seem to figure out the exact cause. Same symptoms as
Made for some interesting visits to the gas station.
Common symptom seen with a defective starter solenoid.
A car that won’t start in the cold might have a loose battery terminal clamp. That among all the other reasons pointed out in thread already.
One possibility: in those two hours the battery and engine warmed enough to make the difference.
What time was this? Maybe the car just isn’t a morning person.
I’m with broomstick. Every time I’ve had a “no click now, but does click later” car problem, it’s been related to an interlock problem somewhere. With one car, I could literally get out of the car and then get back in and it would start. There was apparently JUST ENOUGH difference in my weight moving the car as I got out and got in, my hands on the steering wheel, my pressure on the foot brake, or something. I have usually found the problem by holding the key in the “start” position and then literally rattling and moving everything I can touch in the car (shifter, handbrake, foot brake, wheel, etc.). Once or twice, I’ve had a friend start moving and touching things under the hood.
Agreed. Can’t tell from the OP which it is.
Nothing.
It drove 6 blocks before I stopped it, so it never got warm.
Of what I’ve read, starter solenoid sounds about right. Next time it starts, straight to the mechanic (with a car behind me to drive me home).
Not to be a dick about it, but there are even more degrees of “Nothing” than there are of not starting.
- Real Nothing is: You open the car door and the dome light doesn’t come on. No chimes, no dash lights, battery is completely dead or disconnected.
- The next level is: Dome light comes on, but as soon as the key is turned to start the car, it goes out - battery is almost completely dead, or there is a really bad connection to it.
- Next is: Dome light comes on, when key is turned to start the car, there is no click, but dome light stays on - could be a bad starter relay or blown fuse in that circuit.
- Next is: Dome light comes on, when key is turned to start the car, there is a click, or chattering - battery is very low, or bad connection.
Those are mostly what people call “nothing."
You could simplify that to “Do you ever see any lights or hear any sounds?”
No matter what you ask there’s a probability later on they’ll say “I didn’t know you meant the interior light” or “I didn’t know you meant that beeping noise”.
Do a search on trouble shoot start problems. It will ask you a bunch of questions and then guide you as you answer them. That being said is sounds like a loose or corroded connection.
This is a good place to start. I had 2 cars that wouldn’t start, one started intermittenly, the other was dead-- no crank, no nothing. Both had bad ground connections to the body & the battery.
I once had a car that did that. It had an inertia switch that would turn off the fuel pump if you were in a collision. Sometimes while the car was parked, that switch would trigger and shut off the pump. After some time it would reset. It took me ages to figure out why the car wouldn’t start sometimes.
There was a button in the trunk that you could press to reset that switch. You might want to check the owner’s manual to see if your car has a similar feature.