recently i have been experiencing some trouble when starting my 1972 bay window. the engine is new and has only done around 3000 miles, but when i have been starting it lately sometimes nothing happens when i try to start the engine via the ignition button. a few times i have resolved the problem by charging the battery using jump leads and it has started and run fine for a number of days, but when it has been left it seems to keep going dead and this time jump leads has not resolved the issue.

if anyone has any information that could help me i would very much appreciate it,

thanks matt

Sounds like either a dodgy battery or something is draining it while not being used. Have you left something switched on and not realised it mate?

          Mark.

On 29/06/2008 at 10:40 Tanner said:

recently i have been experiencing some trouble when starting my 1972 bay window. the engine is new and has only done around 3000 miles, but when i have been starting it lately sometimes nothing happens when i try to start the engine via the ignition button. a few times i have resolved the problem by charging the battery using jump leads and it has started and run fine for a number of days, but when it has been left it seems to keep going dead and this time jump leads has not resolved the issue.

if anyone has any information that could help me i would very much appreciate it,

thanks matt

On 11/08/2008 at 05:27 RFisher33 said:

I have a Volgswagen type 2 that does just the same thing. Any help would be appreciated.

You put the key in and turn to the first click and you get ignition lights. When you turn it to start the car you get nothing at all.

This can happen at random. You can be on a long journey and then turn it off to get petrol and start again fine. Other times you can stop it and it does not start again. You can then attach jump leads and connect another battery and this usually sorts it. Other times it doesn't work.

 

So frustrating and i'd love to get to the bottom of it.

                Mark.

We've recently had the same problem on our 1974 bay, but I'm not convinced that we've got to the bottom of it yet. It's happened to us 3 times:

1. Wife tried to start after weeks of no use, and got nothing. Assumed flat battery, but when she tried it again it just started.

2. Going on holiday a couple weeks ago, we stopped for a few minutes after about an hour on the road. No response when trying to restart (ignition lights on, and dimmed when turning to the Starter position, but no sound). Tried rocking it in gear, to no avail. Breakdown service used battery pack to boost, and it started fine.

3. After returning from the holiday, it just wouldn't do anything the next day. Left for a couple of days, it leapt into life on first try last night.

My first car (a Chevette) used to suffer from a stuck starter occasionally, but as I recall there was always a slight noise when it was stuck, and it would not clear itself spotaneously, so I'm not sure that it can be that.

On the other hand, it doesn't look like an electrical system problem, as the lights indicate that current is being taken by the starter. But it seems odd that sometimes the introduction of additional power can fix it.

We really want to get it sorted, though, as it's a background worry, and we don't want to be always having to try to park pointing down a hill (so that a bump start is an alternative).

Any other thoughts, anyone?

Reg

That's not a problem I'm familiar with, so would appreciate any more information - are you effectively saying that some cells are working intermittently (or sometimes taking themselves off-line)? What would cause them to switch mode?

Are they connected in series or in parallel? i.e. if the problem occurs again, would it be detectable by testing for a drop in voltage, or would it just reduce the ampage available?

I guess I've been assuming it must be a fault in the starter motor as it seems to take power but not even try to turn, and from my limited experience even a non-faulty battery in a poor end-of-life state can usually turn a starter motor even if it can't actually start the engine.

As an aside, if we fit a leisure battery, would we be able to use it to boost the main battery without disconnecting the cables? I know we'd have to use a jump lead, but want to check whether it'd do any damage to try that.

Cheers

Reg