If Your Car Won't Start

When you tell someone that you’re having trouble getting your car to start, invariably, they'll tell you, "Maybe your batteries are dead - did you leave the lights turned on all night?" Well, there's certainly a lot of sense to that question. The thing is though, if your car won't start, there's a lot else that can be wrong with it. Let's take a look, shall we?

When a car won't start, the most depressing way for it to do that is to just not do anything at all when you turn the key. There's not a peep out of it. Actually, that should be one of the less depressing scenarios for you. If there's not a peep out of it, it's most likely the battery. In fact, it's probably not even the battery - it's probably just the battery cables. Take a look under your hood to see for cables or battery connectors seem corroded. That should be a particularly cheap part to replace.

A slightly more alarming situation is when you try to start the car, and all you hear is a click.  While this could conceivably still be the battery cables or corrosion somewhere, most likely, it means a dead battery. This should be a somewhat more expensive replacement. But it could also possibly be a loose contact.

Sometimes, the car will crank, but it won't start. Or it will start, but then promptly shut down. If your car won't start even after it cranks, you need to check the fuel line to your engine. If that checks out, you need to check to see if your spark plugs are connected properly.

If the engine does start but then it dies, you can help the situation by checking to see if your carburetor and choke system are in reasonable shape. If yours is a more modern fuel injection system, it's off to the old garage for you.

But for some of us, the car does start well on most days. When it's raining or cold though, something seems to happen to it. It's possible that there's moisture in your distributor cap.  The distributor Is the point that supplies power to the spark plugs. Open it and check to see if there's any moisture inside. You need to evaporate any dampness you see there. To do that, you can get some evaporating aerosol at a car supplies store.

Of course, there's good reason why people will offer the dead battery answer any time someone complains about how their car won't start. If your problem is indeed a dead battery, all you need is a set of jumper cables. Using these, you connect your battery to the battery in someone else's car, and you're done.