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-   -   "My Car Won't Start" | What To Do (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/132166-my-car-wont-start-what-do-55.html)

Hi Guys,

So the SX4 came back home yesterday after a 15 day vacation at the Sai Service garage.

They have fitted a new ECM and, as of now, the car is working fine. They have tested it for 2 days driving a total of 70 kms and did not experience any issues. Let's hope it stays that way.

The new ECM cost just over 10K and total bill was 12k with re-programming, labour, taxes etc.

I just hope this car now settles down to being a normal "Fill it and Forget it" Maruti!!

Regards,
SS

Hey everyone. I hope everyone reading this and their rides are in the best possible shape.
This is regarding my 2014 Q5 2.0 TDI. Because of several reasons, the car hadn't been started in 8 days. On Sunday night, I got an Emergency call from a nearby hospital (4km) and I thought this as a perfect alibi for taking the Q5 for a spin on the relatively empty roads. Everything went well till I returned after attending the call. I started the car, which started as usual without any problem and as soon as it did, there was a TPMS sensor failure and a Parking Brake sensor failure warning before my eyes and the car refused to move. This was at midnight.
I recollected an old post about the Germans throwing fits with a dying battery and let it idle in the hospital parking for 5 minutes with the auto headlamps and CC off.
I attempted to put it in R again but to no avail. I turned the engine off and on again and since then, it has been running perfectly. I got the battery checked at an FNG with a multimeter and bulb syringe thingy (dunno what it does exactly) and he said the battery looks good. My next step is to get an OBD scanner plugged and see what it throws up.
Do any of the members have any idea what I could be dealing with? God forbid it is the sensors, what kind of a bill am I looking at? I'll be more than happy if it is just the battery getting discharged due to non use. All comments welcome

As far as I remember, most German Cars use up a lot of battery even when switched off, so it is recommended to keep the battery charged when not in use.

Many modern cars, not just German ones, suffer from the same problem. When the battery is on its last legs, its voltage drops. The drop in voltage can cause problems for the electronics. My Jaguar is very prone to this.

Do get the codes read. You might want to check the battery terminals. A voltage drop can also be caused by corrosion of the battery terminal, or any other electrical connection. Notorious are the various ground connections. I clean all of them (about 60-70) every couple of years on my Jaguar.

I am not sure what kind of battery you have, the bulb syringe thingy can only be used on old batteries. It is used to measure the specific gravity of the liquid inside the battery cells which is an indication to their state. Did you actually see him use it, does your battery have these little screw on caps on each battery cell. Or do you have what is known as a maintenance free battery. In which case the bulb syringe thingy is useless and also a multimeter might not be sufficient. You need a proper battery tester to get a feeling on the actual charge of the battery, rather than only the voltage.

Jeroen

TPMS : Tire pressure monitoring sensor.

A faulty sensor reading could have forced the ECU to apply parking brakes. So please check out the OBD reading.

Even dead batteries have terminal voltage of approx 12V. Its just that they don't have any Juice left. So no point checking the battery with a Multimeter. You need to see if the battery is able to push a current through a load. In olden days we had an analog dial gauge which gave out a rough reading of whether the batteries are good or not.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Yes, my battery has screw caps on each cell and I saw the bulb syringe in action. Due to other commitments, it will be a 4-5 days before I'll be able to get the codes checked and the battery tested as suggested. Till then, I'm driving it daily and there have been no problems since the Sunday night incident.
Will update soon. Thanks everyone

Couldn't get the necessary things done due to my schedule and a bad viral which put me out of business for a week. Battery tested, has some life. Codes checked, no errors. I guess it was just a discharged battery. Anyway, now on the hunt for tyres, the ones on it are from 2017 and in a bad shape

Hi all. I got the Hexa (2017 XTA) battery replaced in March. The car had been doing fine until June. However since then strange starting problems have started. The car would refuse to start on random occasions. On poking the battery cables etc it might start again but this is not for certain. It is so random that it would start in parking basement and refuse to start on ground floor in a span of 10 minutes.

It has been to the service station 3 times which confirmed there is nothing wrong with the battery, relay (they claim to have changed it), alternator and cables. But the problem still persists. After the last trip to the station the car did ok for a week but it has started to do this again.

Service center even though trying to help is clueless and so am I. Any ideas.

Thanks in advance.

A list of possible reasons why this is happening (assuming the battery itself is fine, since it is new, and the relay has been replaced):

1. The battery cables are broken internally somewhere;
2. The terminals are corroded (whether at the battery or at the starter motor);
3. Ignition key switch is faulty;
4. Starter motor carbon brushes need to be replaced;
5. Starter motor is jamming (broken bearing or Bendix gear)

Since you do not report that the service centre has opened & inspected the starter motor, I'd suspect that to be the culprit. Troubleshooting the problem should be easy enough.

Thanks a lot! The car is going to the service station tomorrow and I'll tell them to check all the points you've mentioned. Hope they fix it.

Are there any tell tale signs on the dashboard? Any engine check light etc.?

Along with what SS-Traveller sir has mentioned above, I would also check the condition of fuel pump and rail pressure to be sure it is getting proper fuel supply at all times.

I am guessing bhargav_dave is seeing a no-crank condition, and not a 'cranking but won't fire up' condition. Please confirm.

Quite possible! I may have misunderstood the not starting on random occasions part of the post.
Thank you for your keen observation and pointing the Bhargav sir in the right direction! :thumbs up

I hadn't checked the thread since last few days so apologies.

Yes the problem is that it cranks but won't fire up on random occasions. There are absolutely no signs and it runs absolutely fine when it starts. When it went to the service center they just couldn't replicate the issue. It would start every single time, even after starting it 30 times in quick succession. They kept it for 3-4 days but no luck.


Now we have agreed that we will wait until it happens again and call them.

I am seeing cranking problems in my Jazz randomly. Turning the key to crank does nothing, no sound or anything. The usual things are lighted up on the display. Turning the key fully off and trying after 2-3 times starts the car. Planning on taking to ASC tomorrow