[jeffk95z]

Hi all,

Came out to the car yesterday to find it completely dead.  Couldn't use the remote to open doors, had to use the key, etc...  looking like the dome light was left on

Living in a new country, have no tools/etc... bought booster cables and sorted our a friend to come over today to try to start it.  We hook up the cables and as soon as I ground the neg. the horn/alarm goes off and lights flash...

Thats gotta be a good sign right?!  I'm able to disable the alarm with the unlock button on the remote.

I get in, try to start the car and it turns over several times, but then nothing.

I go to try again after waiting a few minutes to let the battery charge a bit more, but NOTHING... not a click of the starter, no lights, nothing!  It's almost like there is an immobilizer kicking and blocking all attempts @ starting.

I've just finished 2-3 pages of reading on here after searching and got some ideas, i'll have my wife try the second key fob, but don't really have high hopes there.

Is there some fuse I could of blown?  Or does it make sense that the car would stop me from starting it/etc... ?

Car is a 2008 1.6 petrol cw (i think it has almost all options)

Thanks everyone!

Jeff

[asathorny]

Hi Jefll95z.

I had the exact same deal with my 1.6 edition petrol. The garage came came to me and piggy backed me onto their car which was revving at around 2000/3000 revs.  Started right away, they then took it away and charged the battery 

I was going to buy an emergency started pack until I  read that, if the car is totally flat, as yours was, mine too, then it has to be car to car or it's not gonna work.

I am no expert so someone else may have other ideas, but car to car worked for mine.

Good luck with it...

Asa

[jeffk95z]

thats the weird thing with me... piggy backing from my buddy's v6 hyundai suv, my car almost started, i had some juice... but then it just stopped...

Even with his car still hooked upto mine, i was getting nothing, just like we were no longer connected.  We disconnected the cables, hooked them up again, and still nothing, not a click/flashy light or anything.

Im going to try to borrow a battery charger from someone and charge the battery overnight, also try another car to piggy back from so we'll see.

thx for the reply

cheers

[Shambles]

Sounds like a main fuse has melted

[Dazzler]

Sounds like a main fuse has melted

Gee I hope that is all it is... I am very nervous using Jumper leads on these modern cars .. one wrong move and you can cook the electrics...

Fingers crossed it is just a Fuse...sounds like a battery charger and a quick fuse check is the way to go...

Please let us know how you go 

[jeffk95z]

do we have any diagrams/fuse location pictures available online on the forums?

something i could go over and check things?

[Dazzler]

Hi again Jeff .. I just did a quick search but none of the 80 odd hits for fuse were fuse spec 

There is one fuse box on the R/H end of the dash (in R/H drive cars?) and another somewhere under the bonnet (shouldn't be too hard to find) and they are fairly clearly marked with what they are for (Check the most appropriate ones first 

Hope that helps 

Edit: If you browse through the hits for Fuse in the search function something might help for your situation but nothing kind of hit me ...

[Shambles]

The master engine/starter fuses are under the bonnet - they're bridging links designed to melt if necessary, so should be easy to spot if blown

[jeffk95z]

Hi guys,

i just checked all the fuses under the hood and most of the important looking ones in the dash (damn small hole, hard to get @ anything in there!)

Sadly everything looks just fine   Trying to round up a charger and will give a boost another go tomorrow

thx again for the help

also, attaching a picture of the fuse box under the hood in case someone needs it at some point   it's a big pic tho to get all the labels/etc... not sure if the forum will let me.  If someone has a way to host it, just let me know and i can email the full size (2 megs)

[Dazzler]

Thanks for the Picture (looks like someone has sorted it) 

If you can get the battery charged that would be your best and safest option ..

Hopefully it will start then or you may need to get a mechanic to visit 

[2i30s]

fingers crossed its just a flat battery. 

[jeffk95z]

woohoo!! good news is the car started!

had someone else come by today and i hooked the cables up and it fired up right away!

The odd thing tho is the way i hooked up the cables today vs. yesterday...

yesterday i did positive to positive, and negative to raw engine bolt (bolt on the strut tower).  The negative should only matter to ground, so that shouldn't of caused any issues...

But today, the cables wouldn't reach to that same bolt, so i just did negative to my battery... and it started.  No idea if that difference was the issue that stopped me yesterday but i doubt it (again, yesterday it almost started, but then i stopped cranking and let it 'charge' for a few minutes before going to start again - @ which point nothing).

But it started, and i drove around for 45 minutes to let it charge, shut off, and restarted just fine!

hurray!

thx all

[asathorny]

excellent news I am very pleased for you....   

Asa

[Shambles]

Splendid news

We can fix anything, we can

[Dazzler]

Phew... Thank God for that! (I'll hopefully sleep better tonight - I was a bit worried you'd cooked something  ) 

[rustynutz]

woohoo!! good news is the car started!

had someone else come by today and i hooked the cables up and it fired up right away!

The odd thing tho is the way i hooked up the cables today vs. yesterday...

yesterday i did positive to positive, and negative to raw engine bolt (bolt on the strut tower).  The negative should only matter to ground, so that shouldn't of caused any issues...

But today, the cables wouldn't reach to that same bolt, so i just did negative to my battery... and it started.  No idea if that difference was the issue that stopped me yesterday but i doubt it (again, yesterday it almost started, but then i stopped cranking and let it 'charge' for a few minutes before going to start again - @ which point nothing).

But it started, and i drove around for 45 minutes to let it charge, shut off, and restarted just fine!

hurray!

thx all

Great news! Now hopefully you have access to a charger and are able to give it a really good charge......

[Surferdude]

Yep. The modern battery needs to be charged by a modern charger or, even overnight will leave it at about 85%, as will a drive of any length.
Somewhere on here is a story about the modern batteries which I posted.

Should be here.

https://www.i30ownersclub.com/forum/index.php?topic=6143.msg70051#msg70051

Trev