Author Topic: Weird no start (Read 4369 times)

farkman · « **on:** September 24, 2005, 06:36:46 pm »

Hey guys,

I'm confused and wondering if anyone has heard of this before. My car (94 Golf TD) has been sitting for about 3 weeks. I've been riding my bike to work since May so I've only driven about 1000km since then, and more than 4000km on my bike. Last week I decided to drive to work so I could go shopping after however the car wouldn't start. I checked the battery when I came home, only 2.?? volts. I hooked it up to a charger and put it back in today hoping it it would start. Sure enough it didn't start, but not only that the clock didn't turn on and the radio wouldn't turn on either. When I turned the key there was a sound coming from behind the left air vent area, like a fast ticking. The sound went away when I turned the headlight switch on. I didn't have the time to take a closer look at it but I was wondering if anyone has seen/had this problem before.

By the way, I don't know if it matters but I unplugged the alarm horn because it would continue to sound if the alarm went off, it would go on for hours if I didn't unlock the door to stop it. I park my car on the street and an alarm that wouldn't shut up in the middle of the night would piss everyone off. My Bentley manual says the horn should stop after 30 seconds.

Any suggestions would be great, thanks.

Peter

vwmike · « **Reply #1 on:** September 25, 2005, 04:53:38 am »

Are you sure your battery took a charge? The symptoms make it sound very dead.

Patrick · « **Reply #2 on:** September 25, 2005, 06:36:52 am »

My thoughts exactly. Know anyone with a load tester? Or maybe know someone who would let you borrow a known good batteery to swap into the car long enough to see if it will start?

farkman · « **Reply #3 on:** September 25, 2005, 08:41:34 am »

After I charged the battery it showed 11.5V on the voltmeter. Not great, I know, but that should still be enough to at least turn the radio on. I'll see if I can use the battery from my brother's car. I'm still wondering what that ticking noise could be? A relay maybe?

It's such a pain to work on the car on the street. :x

QuickTD · « **Reply #4 on:** September 25, 2005, 09:14:17 am »

A fully charged battery should be at at least 12.8 volts, 11.5 volts is pretty much dead. I would say the battery is toast. When you turn the key on the glow plugs will also come on, this will drag the battery down even further, probably low enough that the radio will not come on. The ticking was likely the glow plug relay chattering due to insufficient voltage.

zyewdall · « **Reply #5 on:** September 25, 2005, 02:12:44 pm »

Quote from: "QuickTD"

A fully charged battery should be at at least 12.8 volts, 11.5 volts is pretty much dead. I would say the battery is toast. When you turn the key on the glow plugs will also come on, this will drag the battery down even further, probably low enough that the radio will not come on. The ticking was likely the glow plug relay chattering due to insufficient voltage.

Yeah -- sounds like the battery died a complete and sudden death, for whatever reason. Normally they die slowly, and only if you chronically discharge them, but I did have a perfectly good battery go down to 6 volts once -- luckily I parked facing downhill... In my case I has just driven up a really bumpy dirt road, which I do frequently, and I think the plates inside may finally have fallen off.

Zeke

farkman · « **Reply #6 on:** September 30, 2005, 10:32:44 am »

Good call guys, it turned out the battery was dead. No problem , I got a free replacement from Canadian Tire. From now on I'll be taking the battery out of the car and hooking it up to a trickle charger when the car will be parked for extended periods.