Car Won't Start

cruiksdr · 09-07-2015, 02:07 PM

So, my car has been running fine (better than ever, really). The other day, I drove it to work (50 miles). A the end of the day, she starts right up, and we have a lovely drive back -- no problems. I stopped at the grocery store about a mile from the house. 10 minutes later, when I'm walking back to the car, I noticed that the passenger side parking lights were on. Strange - I was sure that I turned off the lights, but who knows. I go to start the car, and she's dead(ish). It turns out that I had turned off the lights, but for some reason, they stayed on. After switching on/off a few times, they went off. I have no idea if this relates to the rest, but in 20 years with this car, I've never seen that happen before.

When I turn the key, I get a nice bright Alt light, but nothing else. I don't hear the fuel pump and I don't hear the ignition (I have a Crane Cams Ignition which makes a fairly loud buzzing sound). Absolutely no crank or starter engagement.

My first thought was Relay. I switched out the relay, and nothing. I've checked all the relay's (three times) and checked the fuses, and everything looks fine. Just for shts and giggles, I even tried jump starting it on the off chance that somehow the battery was low (it's not).

I'm mystified by the idea that it was perfectly fine one minute, and literally less than 10 minutes later, it's dead.

I'm stumped about where to go from here. Any suggestions for troubleshooting or thoughts about what I'm dealing with would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Daniel

URY914 · URY914's Garage

Clean up both ends of the battery ground cable to start with.

Dave at Pelican Parts · Dave at Pelican Parts's Garage

The parking lights thing is a built-in feature. When the car is off, moving the turn signal stalk will illuminate the parking lights on one side or the other of the car.

Not sure about your issue. I'd start with cleaning both the (+) and ground terminals on the battery, as Paul said. After that, probably time to dig out the ol' multimeter and start checking voltages on various circuits.

--DD