Problem starting my baby

[PochaccoMSP]

I run into some problem starting my MSP this morning. When I pressed the clutch and turn the key, nothing but clicks. Lights and alarm are fine the car just won't start. btw, the alarm has been acting weird lately...anyone got any ideas that I can try? Thanks.

 

[JeRNuT]

it sounds like your battery is low, Sometimes the radio will work but there will not be enough power for anything else, pop the clutch and off you go for a batterw test.

Jeremy

 

[fkmp5]

yes, it sounds like a battery too low.. not enough cranking amps to start the car.. try popping the clutch or get a jump start then drive to get a new battery.. or have a buddy take you to the store to get one

 

[CivicEater]

could be your starter solenoid.. if it doesn't push the gear into the flywheel housing, the motor won't turn..

very uncommon on new cars, but after seeing some of the other failures the MSP's are having, i'd say it's def possible..

good thing it's a stick and it's pretty light, so you should be able to pushstart by yourself..

 

[CivicEater]

oh, a second thought..

this happened to a friend of mine..

his floormat had slid up and was keeping the clutch from pressing all the way to the floor, thus the switch wasn't engaged, thus no starting..

doubt it's your problem tho, but lol, that would be funny.

 

[brianseto]

Luckily, it sounds like just the battery.

I had the same problem because I had bought the showroom model, and since it only had 8 miles on it when I bought it, it means that when they were showing the thing off, they played the radio, but never drove it anywhere to charge it.

There's a 12 month warranty on the battery, BTW. Have your dealer replace it.

Oh one other thing to watch out for: when the dealer replaced my battery, the fuse to the subwoofer and amp blew. They replaced the fuse and everything was fine.

 

[Newf]

dealers are supposed to disconnect the battery when it's in the showroom.....but usually they don't. The result...dead battery.

This is one of the reasons why I didn't want my car in the showroom. People see the stereo, and naturaully want to hear it. Bye bye battery

Was the car in the showroom?

 

[t3ase]

FYI--My car has not started twice now. Something is drawing way too much power, possibly the amp, and the alternator can't keep up, I guess.

 

[MazdaDryvr]

A friend of mine with a '02 Sentra SER Spec-v just had his car totally die out on him while driving. After two days Nissan decided it was the "turn over" sensor. WTF is that? Some sort of pastry detector?

 

[KyRaceFan]

the amp doesnt draw enough power for the alternator to not keep up, esp with the battery, ample power when its on.

As far as it clicking, its probably the starter motor itself. The click is the solenoid engaging. The starter on my geo started to go out over the winter, new battery didnt fix it just clicking until eventually it woudl start. Had to spend 100 bucks and a couple hours in the garage replacing the starter.
Thank goodness for warranty on a new car.


Side note-as much as i love my car... who else has had second thoughts about buying an MSP since they seem problematic....and i wonder if the 2003.5's are any better.

 

[Notorious]

oh, a second thought..

this happened to a friend of mine..

his floormat had slid up and was keeping the clutch from pressing all the way to the floor, thus the switch wasn't engaged, thus no starting..

doubt it's your problem tho, but lol, that would be funny.

Only thing is that he is hearing clicking. If you don't have the clutch engaged you won't even hear clicking.

 

[krillin]

do our cars have a "carjacker" mode? like if someone broke into the car and the alarm goes off and the carjacker tried to start the car would it not start?
i remember when i had probs with my alarm triggering WHILE in traffic AT an intersection, and i had to drive to a parking lot really quick(imagine this happening in your first manual car). when the alarm finally stopped beeping i tried to start the car to drive to the dealer but it wouldn't start at all. i reset the alarm and then it started up again. i had 2 more occurances with the alarm just going off while driving and had mazda replace the whole alarm unit. so far it's been a few months and it hasn't happened since.

 

[brianseto]

Showroom

Well, the reason why I wanted the showroom car was that any kind of damage to the car would have been pretty much cosmetic (or battery-related) as opposed to mechanical.

The one I test drove had 170 miles on it already! That means that thing had probably been test driven like 20 times, and probably out of those 20 times, 15 of the drivers beat the snot outta the car (hey, I even pushed it a bit when I test drove it)

I wanted to break mine in from scratch, and doing it from 8 miles on the car is the way to go, IMHO

 

[INGREXCO]

when it happends to me i reach under the dash and hit the reset button for our alarm and it works beutifully