Good ole' "turn key and nothing happens" problem

[FuriousMojo]

Well this may be a first. I've been on thesee boards for a few months now and I don't recall seeing this problem posted so I want to see what some more experienced members think.

Earlier this afternoon I go to get in my car by unlocking it with the keyless remote. Sure enough I hear it beep 4 times indicating the alarm had gone off at some point. Whatever, that's cool I guess. So I take a pretty long drive up to the Florida Mall. I park it for about 4-5 hours and then when I come back I notice that the keyless remote is no longer opening the doors. Great! I get in the car, unlock all the doors manually to let a couple friends in and go to start the car... nothing. "Damnit, the alarm ran out my battery again!" At least that's what I was thinking. I've already had the alarm module replaced once. We get these chinese chicks in the parking lot to bring her car over so we can jump it. No luck! GREAT. So then we try the old Karate Kid trademark move... "Come on Daniel, you can do it!" You know, where the mom is having him push the car to get it started. That worked!! I come home around 8 PM and the car still won't start. At one point I noticed the fuse box clicking. Maybe the fuse box is fux0red?

Argh! We're gonna' do what we dubbed the "pushy start" tomorrow morning on the way to the dealer but I was wondering what you guys thought and whether or not anyone has had this problem yet. Damnit!!!

 

[nrcooled]

ARe you getting any dash lights or is the dome light on.

I am assuming that you don't hear the starter engaging or anything.

From what you say:
If you don't see any lights in the car then you battery is fux0r3d or your alternator is not charging properly. Could be something as silly as a bad ground.

But if you have lights in the car but no starter noise then your alarm may have killed the ignition.

1. Inspect your ground on the engine
2. check for any lights in the car


FWIW- I have no idea why I give tech advice here. You guys are just going to take it to the dealer for warrantee work anyway (not that it's bad or anything)

 

[Midnight22]

cuz ur cool like that

 

[AZDriftR]

weird the car should have been able to jump start, maybe u blew a fuse. i think your battery is under warrenty, if you dont have a aftermarket alarm.

 

[nrcooled]

i try

 

[FuriousMojo]

Yeah but the dealer doesn't always know what they're doing either. So sometimes I give them suggestions based on what more experienced friends and/or helpful people on these boards (like you) post. It can help them find and solve the problem quicker. This was the case with my alarm module going bad back when I first got the car.

Back to the topic: I can get lights on the dash but at one point during the day I couldn't even get that. I'm thinking the battery was definitely dead after I came out of the Mall and first discovered nothing was working. Either way after a fairly long drive home, it should've been charged and I got nothing when I tried to turn it on again. I did have lights on the dash though that time. Maybe the ignition fuse is screwed? I took it out and it <i>seemed</i> okay.

 

[jersey_emt]

The MSP I bought was the one on the showroom floor. I had problems with the battery, it wouldn't hold a charge at all. If I had the radio playing for over one minute, it was dead. One time, after driving it home, the next morning, it was dead.

I took it to the service department, said I wanted a new battery, and they gave me one. No problems since.

Take the car in. It's probably a faulty battery.

 

[FuriousMojo]

Not so sure it's the battery. If it was the battery, the car would start with the lights and radio coming on, no?

 

[RyanJayG]

the lights don't need 12V to turn on.. but Im sure your starter needs atleast 10V to even turn over

 

[t3ase]

This has happened to my car *numerous* times. Even after running the car about an hour, going inside for 5 minutes and coming back out, it's dead in the water. No radio, no clicking, nothing. I even had to buy a new battery when I was up in Colorado so I could drive home.
Dealership gave me a new battery under warranty and tested my alternator but found nothing. It's done it once since then.

 

[TheMAN]

with all these stories of their car won't start... I really think it has everything to do with that piece of s*** OEM alarm... get rid of that s*** and get an aftermarket!

I'm SO glad I didn't get an OEM alarm... aftermarket rules!

 

[Dexter]

its the OEM alarm, i guarantee you. the ******* thing IS a peice of s***. honestly.

have you tried using the emergency override button while trying to start the car?

 

[EVILSRT]

I never have these problems with my car.

*knocks on wood*

 

[TheMAN]

Code makes some of the worse alarms out there

its the OEM alarm, i guarantee you. the ******* thing IS a peice of s***. honestly.

have you tried using the emergency override button while trying to start the car?

 

[FuriousMojo]

I definitely agree that it's the alarm. That was my first suspicion when I put in the damn key and nothing happened. I just KNEW it was the f'n alarm. I've already had the module replaced for draining my battery before. Now it just causes my car not to start, WTF.

Anyway, I took it to the dealer today and am pimping it in a loaner Ford Escort. They also think it's the alarm and are trying to order a SECOND alarm module but it's on <B>National backorder</B>. I told them I wouldn't wait long for it and I'm sure they don't want to either since they are paying for the loaner car! We'll see what happens. Think I can request an aftermarket alarm from them? Perhaps money for one?

 

[TheMAN]

national backorder eh? gee, I wonder why

 

[enry]

](sniip) I'm sure they don't want to either since they are paying for the loaner car! We'll see what happens.

Not entirely correct. MNAO pays for the rental, since it is warranty work. Therefore, as far as they the dealership is concerned, you can keep the rental for the next 50 million years. Someone correct me if I am wrong!

 

[shinzen]

Have em disable it for you for the time being so you can stop driving that pos escort- they should be able to pull the fuse or bypass the kill switch to get you back on the road- then go talk to someone at car toys or whoever has a good rep down in orlando and get a good alarm put in. I don't think that you will necc. solve your issue by putting in another OEM pos.... just my .02

 

[JTP]

That suck FuriousMojo. But the good thing is that you are not putting miles on your car.

 

[BlkZoomZoom]

There is an easy way to get rid of the alarm......
-The alarm on new mazdas are actually "aftermarket",
-Thus being said the alarm control module can be simply unplugged and unplug the jumper harness from the ignition switch then plug the factory plug back in..........This sounds confusing but I'm pretty sure any compitent shop would figure it out......I did when my alarm control module went out.\ and parts told me it would be a couple of weeks.