my car hasn't been starting sometimes. I thought my battery was just going out because I usually just have to jump it to get it started again. but today, i ran into the same problem. I got out of my car to call someone to come give me a jump and then out of habit i pressed the lock button and sure enough it locked. went back into the car and it fired right up. Now I'm just confused about what the problem is.

Anyone else run into any issues like these?

Thanks

 

mileage of our car would help. Also have you tried changing the battery? how old is your battery?

when was the last time you changed your spark plugs? could be bad starter?

You have to give us as much info as possible or everything is just going to be a giant guess.

 

2005. about 81000 miles i haven't changed the battery yet and i have no idea how old it is. i've owned the car for a year. haven't changed the spark plugs. also it usually doesn't lock or let me do anything. i'm not really sure why the electricity went back on today. it usually dies completely. also i waited about 8 minutes before i got out of the car and pressed the lock key

 

It's not your spark plugs. Spark plugs have absolutely nothing to do with your car being able to crank when turning the key. It's also probably not a defective battery, since the car had enough juice to fire without requiring a jump-start.

Before you do anything else at all, start off by removing your battery terminals from the battery (negative/black first, and then positive/red second... and reinstall in reverse order when done) and making sure that the terminals are clean and free of dirt or any battery acid/corrosion and then put them back on and tighten them up securely. The behavior that you're describing sounds like a poor connection at the battery terminals. While you're working in the area of the battery, make sure there is nothing else making accidental contact with your battery terminals which could short them out (I've seen this happen on older cars with metallic hoods where the owner puts a battery in that's too tall for the engine bay and the battery shorts out against the hood).

And now a question.... when your car would not start... did it make any noises when you turned the key (clicks, starter cranking slowly/weak), or did it just do nothing at all? If it happens again, you should immediately take advantage of the situation and go into troubleshooting mode and try to check out the other electronics in the car before doing anything else. See if the radio works, the headlights work and the interior dome light turn on and those components all have good power when the car will not start. If they do have good power and work, then you might need a new starter. There is a little component in your starter called a Solenoid which is prone to sticking/seizing up and causing the starter motor to fail to engage when you try to start the car, and other times it will just magically start again a few minutes later. Sometimes it will just do this intermittently at the most odd of times, and you can often forcefully free it up by smacking something solid against the starter. That's only a temporary solution though, and the real solution is to replace or rebuild the starter if this turns out to be your problem.

 

Get a new battery!

 

take the battery out and have it tested at your local parts store. probably a cell in the battery on the verge of going bad. If its good then start tracing your electrical system starting from the battery looking for anything unusual.

 

Battery is usually the first thing you check in an electrical car fault, but it sort of sounds (guessing) like you have a problem with the security alarm-immobiliser.

 

Everything else works and if it makes any difference it restarted my trip distance thing. it does not make any noises when i try to start it either. I will check the connections and the battery for sure.

thanks!