2007 Aveo.
Bout it a week ago, ran great.
Came back to apartment after Sunday dinner with Dad. Went to car to go shopping, car won’t start.
[ul]
[li]Car won’t start[/li][li]No sound of starter motor when I turn key[/li][li]No lighing up on dash.[/li][li]Can’t move transmission stick. AT ALL.[/li][/ul]
Unlikely to be able to get help on Labor Day, need car for Tuesday.
HELP!
Have you tried jumping it?
Why would the shift be frozen in place for a dead battery?
My car won’t let me shift from park to reverse unless my foot is on the brake pedal. If that’s an electric sensor, it could be non-functioning with a dead battery. I’m not a car guy, so I don’t know if that’s how that works, but the other symptoms sounded like a dead battery. Seemed like the first thing to try…
Dad is coming over tomorrow morning.
Any suggestions still needed!
If the battery is charged but you have no electricity then you have dirty connections, a blown fuse, bad ground, or combination of them. If the battery takes a charge and everything works then it is not getting a charge which could be a bad alternator, regulator or connector.
Some cars (I’m not sure about this specific one) have an electric solenoid that does the brake interlock. So if your car is one of those, a completely stone-dead battery will cause the shifter to be unmovable. If you need to put it in neutral, there should be some sort of bypass switch.
Otherwise a broken ignition lock cylinder could be the problem, but I don’t think that would just happen out of the blue and I think the feel of the key turning in it would be a giveaway.
Yes, my Saturn is like this. there is an electrically operated lock on the shifter (assuming you mean automatic) that works off the brake. No electricity, no shifty. Since it’s a 2007 it’s unlikely the battery is shot but you may have left the lights on or something else is draining the battery.
, regulator or connector.
Remove the leads to the battery, take a wire brush to the terminals, reattach, and if the car isn’t getting power after that get a jump start.
If that doesn’t work check fuses.
If that doesn’t work you probably have a bum alternator. It does happen sometimes.
The technical name for it is a “shift inhibit solenoid” and it is operated by a switch attached to the brake pedal. It’s a safety feature that prevents you from shifting out of park if you don’t have your foot on the brake. There’s usually a small button down near the bottom of the shift lever that you can push in, which you can use to release the shift lever if the solenoid isn’t functioning properly for some reason.
Since it sounds like the battery is completely dead, it’s not surprising that the shift inhibit solenoid isn’t working.
At the very least, you need a new battery. If you aren’t getting any lights at all on the dash then the battery is so run down that it has chemically destroyed itself. You may be able to jump it and get it to hold some charge, but it won’t last long.
You also need to find out what killed the battery. It could be something simple like the door didn’t shut quite right and the dome light killed the battery, or you could have something that has failed and is drawing too much power when the car is off. Most cars should be able to last a month or two of sitting before the battery goes dead. A week is way too short. It shouldn’t die that quickly.
It sounds like a dead battery, and since your car is pretty new, a jump will revive you and it should charge up just fine and give you a few more years of service, barring some undiagnosed power drain.
I wonder if OP left the lights on…could even be a dome light, for instance, that drained it. A friend of mine has an Aveo and she said her tires crapped out after like 15K miles. I wouldn’t be surprised if they skimped, not putting a top of the line battery in the factory, to remain competitive.
I had something very similar happen to me after I got a new car. A week after I bought it, it was completely dead, and the shifter wouldn’t move.
Long story short, it was the battery. Being a new car, we had to get it inspected, and they must have turned on the headlights during the inspection. It was the middle of the day, so my wife didn’t notice afterward and left the headlights on when she turned off the car. The headlights ran down the battery so bad, that it couldn’t even be jump-started. We had to get it towed, and the shop charged the battery for 8 or 9 hours and the car was as good as new and never had another problem.
If your car is a 2007 it is very likely that your battery is shot. I’ve never had a battery that came with a car last longer than around three years and a 2007 car could have been built in 2006.
As a 2007 Aveo, you should still be covered by 5yr/100k miles roadside assistance coverage…if it’s a battery problem, roadside assistance should be able to replace your battery for only the cost of the battery.
Hmm…battery cable to ground terminal loose.
It can be very hard on the alternator to just jump start a dead battery. It should be charged up with a battery charger if that is passable for you to do.
The little note that comes with a new alternator cautions that the battery must be at full charge before starting.
Listen to Airman. The simplest things are the least expensive and dirty terminals are a common reason for no vroom.
You’ve never had a battery in a new car last longer than three years? That sounds quite unusual.
I’ve never heard this before. Are you thinking of the damage that would occur if an alternator tries to charge a defective battery? Then it would run at full capacity all the time (effectively running hot)