Not starting, appears to be an electrical problem
Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 2:50 pm
Hey guys,
Little bit of back story first to set the scene. Tried to move my car for the first time in about 2 weeks, a little over a week and a half ago. Wouldn't start so I rolled it out of the garage and down the street, attempting to roll start it. Got nothing. Brought a friends car down to attempt to jump it, still nothing. You can hear the fuel pump start up, lights on dash come on, but when the key goes to start everything dies. Pushed it home, took the battery out, put it on the charger, was gone for <2 minutes and it said it was fully charged. Confused, I put the battery back in and still the same problem.
Got the multimeter out, battery shows a full 12v. Maybe the connections are dodgy? Connect the positive terminal of the battery to the positive prong of the multimeter, negative terminal of the battery to the car, negative prong of the multimeter to the chassis; get 12v. Swap everything around so we have the opposite, 12v. Connect both battery terminals to their normal connection points, 3v. Take battery out, 12v. Connect both terminals again, 3v. WTF!
Well and truly confused and annoyed at this point so I went inside and got a drink. Came out 10 minutes later to push the car in the garage and it started. Turned it off/on a couple of times, no problems. Went for a drive to my parents place about 20minutes away, left it for about an hour, started first go when I went to leave so I assumed all was well.
Car didn't move since last weekend, about a week and a half ago. Went to go to work this morning and she won't start. Get out the multimeter again and it's the same problem. Battery on it's own shows 12v, one terminal connected (doesn't matter which one) shows 12v, both connected shows 3v.
I'm going to try another battery tonight but beyond that I'm about out of ideas. Anyone seen this sort of thing happen before?
Thanks in advance
Little bit of back story first to set the scene. Tried to move my car for the first time in about 2 weeks, a little over a week and a half ago. Wouldn't start so I rolled it out of the garage and down the street, attempting to roll start it. Got nothing. Brought a friends car down to attempt to jump it, still nothing. You can hear the fuel pump start up, lights on dash come on, but when the key goes to start everything dies. Pushed it home, took the battery out, put it on the charger, was gone for <2 minutes and it said it was fully charged. Confused, I put the battery back in and still the same problem.
Got the multimeter out, battery shows a full 12v. Maybe the connections are dodgy? Connect the positive terminal of the battery to the positive prong of the multimeter, negative terminal of the battery to the car, negative prong of the multimeter to the chassis; get 12v. Swap everything around so we have the opposite, 12v. Connect both battery terminals to their normal connection points, 3v. Take battery out, 12v. Connect both terminals again, 3v. WTF!
Well and truly confused and annoyed at this point so I went inside and got a drink. Came out 10 minutes later to push the car in the garage and it started. Turned it off/on a couple of times, no problems. Went for a drive to my parents place about 20minutes away, left it for about an hour, started first go when I went to leave so I assumed all was well.
Car didn't move since last weekend, about a week and a half ago. Went to go to work this morning and she won't start. Get out the multimeter again and it's the same problem. Battery on it's own shows 12v, one terminal connected (doesn't matter which one) shows 12v, both connected shows 3v.
I'm going to try another battery tonight but beyond that I'm about out of ideas. Anyone seen this sort of thing happen before?
Thanks in advance
