Team-BHP - "My Car Won't Start"

It happened to me!

On Tuesday morn, my wife turned on the ignition in her i10 AT, it wouldnt start. I too tried but wouldnt start. As it was getting late for work, we left in my car. The whole day was busy, I couldnt contact the mechanic as well. In between work, I was busy checking this very thread !!
Night when I got back, armed with fresh knowledge, I proceeded with my diagnostic work up. The battery seemed fine, all the lights would come on, music would play, power windows were whirring. The terminals too were clean.
The cranking sound too was there, So I guessed the starter motor was also fine.
But the engine wouldnt fire. Going by the algorithm here, it looked as if the spark plugs are not firing or maybe there was no petrol coming into engine.
There were no error lights on the dash.
Few days back, I had seen a rat running under the car. So checked the bonnet, underbody, but didnt seen anything loose or chewn by any animal.

Anyway, the next day I called the Hyundai service center. They came over to my house, worked on the car and left. I came back in the evening and viola, the engine was firing nicely. I was a relieved man.

I met up the Hyundai service centre guy. This is what he said " Even I couldnt figure out what the problem is !!. I though it could be a fuel line issue, so had opened it and checked the line. After reconnecting it is working fine! You run it Sir, if there is any problem, please do call "

I have used the car for two days now and it is working as if nothing ever happened!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller (Post 3116766)

So this was an issue with the FP relay per se, or was it a loose contact / sulphation at the relay terminals? Did you bench-test the FP relay?

It was the Main relay which is similar to the FP relay. I interchanged them and found out it was not working. However it looks in good condition externally. I will check it with my meter and let you know if there is continuity.
Should this happen to anyone on the road not to worry if you have an Aircon cos the AC relay is similar. Even though it looks bigger in size the coupler contact is the same. So one can use that and drive without AC. I didn't think of this at that time. Now I know :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deep Blue (Post 3118861)

It happened to me!

I met up the Hyundai service centre guy. This is what he said " Even I couldnt figure out what the problem is !!. I though it could be a fuel line issue, so had opened it and checked the line. After reconnecting it is working fine! You run it Sir, if there is any problem, please do call "

I have used the car for two days now and it is working as if nothing ever happened!!

This is not good if you're not sure about the problem. You need to find out cos if there is something wrong it will happen again and you'd be stuck when you least expect. It's happened to me and even worse was the car just got out of warranty when it did the next time. It was a fuel pump and the cost was about 22k

Well this happened to me last Saturday night. I drove my Zen AT straight into water (Cauvery Underpass) and car got submerged quite a bit. The biggest mistake I did was to crank the car under water. Now I am sure that there is an ECU failure. Car is at Mars and am awaiting my insurance procedure. They have quoted a rough estimate of between 50k-75k :eek:. Any of you guys know what else can be checked or the procedure before assuming ECU needs to be changed? Also, can I use a 2nd hand ECU of a manual Zen (mine is an AT). I am close to validating my car as a write off. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!
Rohan

Quote:

Originally Posted by deutscheafrikar (Post 3116280)

Hi SS,

Nice thread. I will post my recent experience. My 800 MPFI 5 Speed did not start last friday (just cranking but no firing). I put it down to fuel pump or FP relay since I couldn't hear the pump on noise for that 3 secs when the key was turned on, and since there was no petrol being pumped in the line. The relays seemed to work since I interchanged the Main relay and Fp relay and could hear the click click. The mistake I made here was I didn't look at the ECM light on the dash. So I was wondering if the FP had failed. I checked it 2 days later and I found the ECM light was not coming on when the ign was switched on. This got me worried. But when I interchanged relays again I found the Engine warning light came on with the FP relay but car didn't start even though it cranked. So I figured the main relay was bad. FP was OK. I checked the FP coupler with a volt meter and found that when I turned the Ign key on 12 volts was there for 3 secs. This is the 3 secs we here the fuel pump come on when we turn the key on first time. So today I bought a relay from Vitesse and plugged it in. Car starts since main relay is working and FP relay in pumping fuel. I read the workshop manual however the relays were shown in a different order in the drawing and I got a bit confused, specially when I shorted the coupler wires to check if the FP was working, but found the AC compressor click. I didn't want to give the car ot a local mech/electrican and couldn't drive it to my guy. But in the end it got solved. Now intend to change the other old relay and keep a good old Relay as spare. :)

@deutscheafrikar
You post couldn't have come at a better time. I'm facing the exact same issue in my MPFi 800 5 speed since the last few days. The car cranks but does not start. If I switch off the ignition and try after a few minutes, it starts without any issues. I was also thinking it should be either the fuel pump or the spark plugs. Could you specify the exact part you have replaced? If you were referring to the fuel pump relay, the part no. if available along with costs incurred would be helpful. I'm guessing by FP you meant fuel pump. For me the check engine light does come on when the ignition is in ON position and goes off once the engine is running. I also hear that 3 sec sound when the ignition is brought to ON position so I'm assuming the fuel pump should be working fine based on your post.

Quote:

Originally Posted by longhorn (Post 3144696)

Longhorn, If the light comes on and the 3 mins sound of fuel pump is heard then both these two relays seem fine. One is the main relay the other the Fuel pump relay. These two relays are the same as the Air Condition relay though the original AC relay maybe bigger in size. I got the AC relay from a Maruti Suzuki dealer but it was smaller in size like the other two and cost about 400/-
So now you need to find out why your car doesn't start sometimes. How many KM since the last service? What's the condition of spark plugs and when was the fuel filter last changed?

@SS I still haven't checked out the bad FP relay... will do so and post the result :)
Cheers

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deep Blue (Post 3118861)

I have used the car for two days now and it is working as if nothing ever happened!!

Something similar happened to our Ikon a few days ago, when it suddenly refused to start. After checking the usual suspects, still no clue. So had to call a towing van and got it towed to the FNG.

The mechanic went through the entire vehicle and from something as basic (and obviously wrong) as no fuel to something as drastic as a fuel pump failure, he checked everything. No conclusive diagnostic. He did find one of the electrical contacts of the fuel pump blackened and cleaned it up a bit before refitting it.

After the check up, everything is working fine. The petrol tank was checked, the fuel filter was checked, the pump was checked, and except for the blackened contact, nothing was out of place. The car didn't start before, it started later.

Quote:

Originally Posted by deutscheafrikar (Post 3145336)

Last service was just a month ago during which engine oil, transmission oil and oil filter was replaced. My total running last year was just 1000 kms. Spark plugs were changed around 3 years ago. The cumulative running since last spark plug change won't exceed 6-7k kms. The vehicle has a genuine 60 k kms on the odo. I can't recollect when the fuel filter was last changed. Guess I need to look at the spark plugs and fuel filter first. Given the quality of fuel in Chennai, I have thus far filled petrol only from two different trusted pumps. What's bizzare is it starts normally if I wait for a couple of minutes and try again.

Sounds a lot like my car, done just 32 k's in 11 years. Try something different, ign on till you hear the sound of the fuel pump go off. Then switch off and then turn it on again try starting like you would the second time.
I have the workshop manual which is about 10 mb if you want it. Or maybe I can locate the download link.
Cheers

Quote:

Originally Posted by longhorn (Post 3145713)

Quote:

Originally Posted by deutscheafrikar (Post 3145848)

I've PMed you my mail id. Would love to get a copy of the workshop manual. In fact I did search for it on the net but couldn't find one for the 5 speed. I'm wary of taking it to MASS cause these guys usually just push for replacement of all related parts without actually trying to find out the root cause. If I where able to identify it, then I could just ask them to check on those lines. Else you might end up replacing parts where a simple clean up job would suffice. Could it be a throttle body cleanup requirement by any chance?

Yesterday i encountered this 'My Car Won't Start' phenomenon but the circumstances were totally unusual.

I started from my residence in the morning without any issues. My office is around 24 Kms. After running the car for about 20 Kms there was a long traffic jam with nothing moving. So i turned off the ignition. After 5 minutes the car in front of me moved a bit so i tried starting the car. But car would not start. After a couple of tries noticed that the lights on the dashboard were dim and the power windows were also operating very very slowly. Finally the battery drained out and all the electricals stopped working. Luckily i was on the side lane and got the car pushed away from the road with the help of some good samaritans.

Called the helpline number and the mechanic came within half an hour to jump start the car. It was a one minute job and i proceeded with my journey. The battery is 5 year old and i have done 76K Kms. No major battery draining components present in the car other than normal music system and auto cop.

My questions:
- Later in the evening again i did not face problem in starting the car eventhough it was parked for 6-7 hours. So what caused it to suddenly break down in the morning when i had shut it only for 5 mins in the traffic jam after driving it for half an hour.
- Today morning as well no issues in starting the car.

As a precaution i got the battery checked today morning and there was no issue with the voltage even while the ignition was off and then turned on.

Can someone advise what else needs to be checked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by amitwlele (Post 3146141)

Can someone advise what else needs to be checked.

Since the lights went dim and also the power windows became sluggish, I strongly suspect its the battery. As you say that the battery is okay, there could be a loose/ dirty contact on the battery terminals.

Also, the battery is 5 year old, hence closer to the end than the beginning of its life, hence better to do a gravity test, rather than only checking voltages. I suspect that it will run you in some trouble again very soon. Take measures.

Regards,
Saket