Technical Car not starting
- Thread starter Ali786
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Technical Car not starting
If it runs fine once bump started with no warning lights or error codes, I would check there is power to the starter motor, first make sure the main leads heavy thick leads, live and earth are all good then see if you are getting voltage to the solenoid terminal the small wire at the starter. If you are then can be the starter, though I would expect to hear some sound from it, if no voltage when turning the ignition key ( keep your self safe from moving parts!) check ignition switch for power to the starter when key turned to start position. All this is assuming you have a good fully charged battery.
A common fault on Fiats is a broken earth between the battery and the engine when you try and start the car the earth is not thick enough to allow enough power to the starter motor to flow, but all other electricals seem to work normally and you can push start the car fine usually.
Fiat usually attach the earth to the engine low on the front of the gearbox so it is subject to a lot of water and weather and corrodes over time right at the lowest point.
You can measure the voltages but there are other small earths or a small part of the main earth can still be intact so you will still measure good voltages, but what you won't get and what you shouldn't try to measure is the current that gets to the starter.
The standard test for this is to take a single jump lead and attach it to the battery earth/ground and the other end to a large non moving metal part of the engine itself. there is usually a lifting eye or some other lump of metal sticking up that makes a good contact point. Wiggle the lead around to make sure it bites into the metal a bit and creates a good contact then try and start the car on the key. If it works or the starter starts trying then chances are you have a dodgy battery earth cable.
Fiat usually attach the earth to the engine low on the front of the gearbox so it is subject to a lot of water and weather and corrodes over time right at the lowest point.
You can measure the voltages but there are other small earths or a small part of the main earth can still be intact so you will still measure good voltages, but what you won't get and what you shouldn't try to measure is the current that gets to the starter.
The standard test for this is to take a single jump lead and attach it to the battery earth/ground and the other end to a large non moving metal part of the engine itself. there is usually a lifting eye or some other lump of metal sticking up that makes a good contact point. Wiggle the lead around to make sure it bites into the metal a bit and creates a good contact then try and start the car on the key. If it works or the starter starts trying then chances are you have a dodgy battery earth cable.
I think this would be the problem because after the incident of not starting it began to start funny and making loud screeching noise before starting. And today the car never started again so I wiggled the earth wire and it started straight up
Worth replacing the earth wire entirely it goes down to the inner wheel arch/metal body of the car just below the battery and carries on to the gearbox. you can get replacement earth wires really cheaply from auto part stores as its such a common failure point.
When I had my Mk2 Punto I put a second earth between the body and the engine just to make sure I wouldn't get any more failures.
