My car doesn't start even after a jump start please help :(

[VauxhallAgila]

Hi

I was away for a week and when I came back and tried starting up my car it doesn't start up. There is a click noise as I turn the key and the dashboard lights come on but the engine doesn't start up. I bought some jump leads and tried getting it jump started with another car but it doesn't start up. When I turn the switch on whilst jump starting there is a faint revving noise but the engine doesn't start up. It has been very cold here in the last week so don't know if that has caused the problem. I took the battery out and got it tested by ATS and apparently it showed a voltage of 11.57. I have a vauxhall agila 2007.

Could anyone please give me any ideas as to what could be causing this.

Many thanks

 

[Belle427]

duff battery

 

[wotan]

car battery's really need to be in good order to start a car in really cold weather, are you sure that when you connected the jump leads all four clips were making good contact.
The engine of the good car should also be running, this provides the necessary boost of current for the car being jump started to actually start.

Wotan

 

[VauxhallAgila]

car battery's really need to be in good order to start a car in really cold weather, are you sure that when you connected the jump leads all four clips were making good contact.
The engine of the good car should also be running, this provides the necessary boost of current for the car being jump started to actually start.

Wotan

Thank you for your reply. I ensure that the jump lead connections were fine and tried jump starting with two different cars. The engine of the good car was also running and it was revved a few times also but unfortunately no luck.

 

[tebreak]

When you say it won't start, is the starter motor turning? If so is it sluggish?

 

[VauxhallAgila]

When you say it won't start, is the starter motor turning? If so is it sluggish?

Well when the jump lead cables were connected there are a faint sluggish sound but when I start normally there is just a click and no sound. The lights on the dashboard come on but the radio doesn't turn on either.

 

[Dave54]

A battery showing 11.57V is absolutely flat and / or duff. It needs charging for at least 24 hours to get it back to anything like a decent charge level. As already said, it sounds like a duff / flat battery, and you may not have had a good connection when trying to jump start.

 

[Belle427]

most off the shelf jump leads are not big enough to pass the current required to start the engine

 

[^woody^]

Even with a flat battery, it should start off a jump

Otherwise, clicks are the starter motor solenoid. Can you still whack them with a hammer on the modern starters to release a stuck solenoid?

Battery should be 12.6 v when full, and over 13v when charging. Less than 12v is flat or dead

 

[Belle427]

Even with a flat battery, it should start off a jump

Otherwise, clicks are the starter motor solenoid. Can you still whack them with a hammer on the modern starters to release a stuck solenoid?

Battery should be 12.6 v when full, and over 13v when charging. Less than 12v is flat or dead

if the jump lead cables are not big enough then it still wont start

 

[securespark]

Don't know if this helps, but the battery in my Octavia TDi went flat 10 days ago and would not jump start, same solenoidal clicks...

I bought a CTEK MSX 5.0 charger today and it appears to have resurrected the battery. It's still charging, but is on stage 4 which the manual says is 80% charged and will start the engine. I'll leave it a bit more and see what happens.

I took a gamble and bought this charger hoping it would bring life back to the battery. But if you can borrow a CTEK charger rather than buy one, if it fails to charge, you've not thrown any money away. Although, like me, you sound like you need a CTEK to keep it topped up.

Anyhow, the CTEK was half the price of a new battery, £55 against £110.

STOP PRESS!

Just gone outside and turned the ign key of the Skoda....it starts!

It was so dead, jump starting would not produce anything more than a click from the solenoid even after running the other engine for 15 mins and trying again.

Then it was left for 10 days to die even more in the sub-zero temps... Before connecting the CTEK, the multimeter was reading 2.4 V.

Now, after almost 10 hours TLC from the CTEK, it's running again.

Gotta be worth a try.

That's what I reasoned when I bought it. Mrs Secure complained that if we bought a charger and it didn't work, we'd need a new battery. But, I reasoned, we'd still need a charger to keep the new battery topped up.

10/10 CTEK!

 

[bhm1712]

are you sure you connected the jump leads correctly? there is a fallacy out there which i have witnessed many times that the leads need to be crossed over, so that live from the dead battery connects to the negative on the doner battery, and vice versa. The lives need to be connected together and the negatives do. its very strange that a car connected properly with jump leads will not start at all.

Best procedure is to connect up and start the working car up, rev it and hold at about 2500 rpm. Give its 5 minutes and then try to start the car with the dead battery.

even if the jump leads are not big enough to carry the current required, it will still work, its just that the leads will get extremely hot. If the current is really sooo great, then there is a chance the lead insulation will melt. Ive seen it and done it myself, but the car always started!

 

[VauxhallAgila]

Thanks for all the feedback. The jump leads I bought were from a corner shop for £6 and were getting quite hot when trying to jump start. I am heading down to B&Q now to buy another set of jump leads for £20 so hopefully that does the trick.

I tried starting the car today and it was 100% dead even the dashboard lights or the headlights don't turn on any more!

 

[mattylad]

What makes you think that you are going to get better jump leads by paying more money at B&Q ?

They are a DIY store, not a car spare shop.

Visit your local motor factors instead, they have a better reputation to uphold so are less likely to sell crap.

To completely prove its not the battery take it out and put a borrowed good one in. (Ensure you have the radio codes in the donor car first).

 

[Dave54]

What makes you think that you are going to get better jump leads by paying more money at B&Q ?

They are a DIY store, not a car spare shop.

Visit your local motor factors instead, they have a better reputation to uphold so are less likely to sell crap.

To completely prove its not the battery take it out and put a borrowed good one in. (Ensure you have the radio codes in the donor car first).

Agreed. The ones to look for have what looks like welding cable as the conductors, thick, flexible and covered with rubber type insulation,
and have big heavy clamps. I got mine from a local auto electric specialist 20 odd years ago and they're still going strong. They're long enough to stretch from the front to the back of a car. They really weren't all that expensive either.