Car won't start

Post by **Les** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 2:22 pm

Has to be the wiring. You must have disconnected something important by mistake or you have accidently knocked another wire off whilst doing the work. Far to much of a coincidence for me.
You mentioned an ignition wire, what did you do with this and can you put it back as before?
Auto electrics are famously difficult but you must know a bit before you are rummaging around in them. Just curious but have you tried jumping it, this will prove if the battery is the issue fairly easily. If you connect up to a jumper or other car and hit the start button and still nothing, defo a loose wire I would have thought.
Bye the way my car had a boot leak before I owned it, seems fine now but just wondering if this is a common issue. If it is someone should be able to point you to the responsible seal hopefully.

Post by **cherub72** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 2:33 pm

If you listen carefully with the radio off can you hear the relays under the drivers side dashboard clicking when you press the start button? I had a similar issue a while ago that was a wiring problem, water has worked its way into the connector on the starter motor and corroded it. It only took West London Audi 5 weeks of having the car to find the problem...

Post by **zed_hn** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 2:35 pm

Hi all
Iv just had the se problem and my battery was around 11.4v the would not turn over at all, all lights and radio came on but just wouldn't start, I then got Audi recovery to come and and start the thing up with a jump start, apparently the car requires at 12.2v minimum to start it, also when I got home iv got a battery tester, put it on there and turned the lights on and got it it turn over and it went dead, battery tester showed it to be a very weak battery, I got it changed eventually and now it turns over perfectly.

My best bet is it is a flat battery.

Post by **ArthurPE** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 2:43 pm

did the car start after you did the RNS work?
if not, I agree this work caused your issue...either by disturbing wiring or putting something to ground and draining the battery, etc.

Post by **adsgreen** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 3:11 pm

Turn the lights on and see if the starter illuminates. If so then it's fairly safe to say its connected (as it's all on the same wiring harness and plug).

Always worth checking fuses - you never know.

As Arthur says, static battery voltage tells you pretty much nothing. 11.8 however does seem low - I wonder if all the interior lights and such like have knocked it down a bit.
If it's at 11.8 now then when you try to put a starting load through it I'd say it'll be struggling to stay in the 11's.
Most modern cars won't bother trying to start if too low (esp ones that are self starting - ie you don't have to hold the key or button to turn the engine over).

If holding the starter button for 10 secs or so doesn't work then clutch switch likely to be fine.

I would definitely get a charger on the battery and see how it goes.

Post by **adsgreen** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 3:13 pm

Nice ref
http://carbatteryonline.net/car-battery-tester.html

Also worth testing how many amps the car is pulling (tricky to do as everything switches on with the drivers door and is timed).

Post by **slowmonkey** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 3:21 pm

adsgreen wrote:Turn the lights on and see if the starter illuminates. If so then it's fairly safe to say its connected (as it's all on the same wiring harness and plug).

I would definitely get a charger on the battery and see how it goes.

Great idea re the starter switch, just done that and the red ring illuminates fine. Off to Hellfrauds now to get a battery charger. Will update........

Continued thanks for all the input, even if it is just a flat battery I've learnt lots about a lot of other stuff !

Post by **slowmonkey** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 4:16 pm

Right got a charger and ready to go, I was going to remove the battery from the car and bring it indoors, any tips on removal, does it set the alarm off, how do you unlock / lock the car with no power, etc etc ?

Post by **Andyy** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 5:00 pm

I had this problem once a few months ago, had nothing since.

Persistence paid off for me because i needed to be somewhere, i noticed when i had the door open while pressing the start i could hear a subtle click from under the drivers side somewhere. So i kept trying to start it by rapidly pressing the button, after a few tries the click got longer and longer and finally it sputtered back to life. I haven't had a single problem since, started first time every time. The car was up to temperature as i had just drove it, i popped into the shops for a drink

Doesn't make any sense why it worked but it did and this probably wont help you but who knows might get lucky

Post by **RIV** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 5:26 pm

Doesn't make any sense why it worked but it did and this probably wont help you but who knows might get lucky

Had a similar problem on my car about a year ago, turned out to be a relay, cheap fix if I remember

Post by **adsgreen** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 5:34 pm

slowmonkey wrote:Right got a charger and ready to go, I was going to remove the battery from the car and bring it indoors, any tips on removal, does it set the alarm off, how do you unlock / lock the car with no power, etc etc ?

make sure the car alarm is off (as in the car is unlocked).
For safety, disconnect the *negative* one first.

You'll need to reset the auto up/down of the windows (wind all way down then wind all the way up).
Steering wheel sensor should sort itself out when you drive it.

Post by **MikeFish** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 6:27 pm

Andyy wrote:I had this problem once a few months ago, had nothing since.

Persistence paid off for me because i needed to be somewhere, i noticed when i had the door open while pressing the start i could hear a subtle click from under the drivers side somewhere. So i kept trying to start it by rapidly pressing the button, after a few tries the click got longer and longer and finally it sputtered back to life. I haven't had a single problem since, started first time every time. The car was up to temperature as i had just drove it, i popped into the shops for a drink

Doesn't make any sense why it worked but it did and this probably wont help you but who knows might get lucky

I had this one a previous with starter button. It happened once, then ages later it happened again, and slowly becaome more frequent, but only when warm. Turned out to be the starter motor.

Post by **Andyy** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 6:44 pm

MikeFish wrote:I had this one a previous with starter button. It happened once, then ages later it happened again, and slowly becaome more frequent, but only when warm. Turned out to be the starter motor.

Ahh, cheers for the heads up mate

Post by **Ian_C** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 7:37 pm

So removing the battery - put it on charge and start her up! Or are you living with on street parking or something and no means of running power to it?

These kind of cars don't like being jump / bump started, but I doubt turning the ignition with a charger connected would do any harm, I've started my 205 a few times this way - hook up the charger, start it, disconnect, drive

Post by **adsgreen** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:37 pm

You will most likely blow the fuse on the charger. The amp draw of a large v8 wouldn't be the best thing to run through skinny charger cables.
Why do you think booster cables are considerably thicker than a battery charger's?

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