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Cant turn car on ??

R

R9oliver

Messages
6
So recently I installed Front and back speakers, Amp and Subwoofer, since then when I come to start the car there is absolutely nothing when turning the ignition barell, just the lights by speedo.


The car has been on the drive for a month because I broke my arm and I had originally turned the car on daily for 5-10 minutes let it warm up, but it gradually got to a point where it was struggling to turn over. When it did turn on I was testing the sound system so I guess it wouldnt of charged as much as it could of.

I have also installed a AEM CAI, I doubt this is anything to do with it but are there any wires I could of knocked that could of caused this problem?


I know people will say it just a dead battery but my dad did take car for 10 minute drive today after using jump leads and when I turned it off I tried to turn it back on There was nothing once again, just the lights !


I did see the battery light flicker so I cleaned the positive and negative battery terminals (cleaned sanded them down and used wd40), this has also been to no avail.


Any help appreciated thank you
 
Any chance you've wired the amp up wrong so it's permanently on which is then draining the battery?

If it starts with a jump but not straight after your battery isn't holding charge or is flat to start with. Have you got a multimeter to stick across the terminals? Should be around 12.4v with the engine off and 14v with it running IIRC.
 
Thank you, I have temporarily disconnected the amp now and still same thing, I just used a multimeter which only measured batteries to a maximum of 9 Volts and it read 4 Volts (which it sai was bad), checked my dads car an that said 6 Volts when off and around 7.5 Volts when it was ticking over so its definately flat, but why wouldnt it hold charge? How long would it take to fully recharge it on a drive?
 
Were you having any problems before you wired the speakers in? also 10 minutes idling each day isn't necessarily enough to keep decent charge in the battery as you would also be draining it each time you started the engine cold? Having said that, I would have thought that after 10 minutes decent driving, you would get at least a kick of the starter if you tried starting immediately after stopping so it may be that the battery isn't charging at all, possibly either battery or alternator? If you haven't got a decent multimeter, one old trick we used to use in the old days, was to start the car up when dark and when idling, blip the throttle. you may see the dashboard lights, or even head lights glow a little brighter as you blip the throttle which was a (crude) method of assessing whether the alternator was charging. Not sure if it holds true for modern cars though.
 
No I never did have a problem before installing the audio, and when I was turning the car on I was testing the audio setup aswell, so I guess this didnt help.

I did notice the car struggling more and more to turn on over the course of a week, and now i'm at this stage.... nothing at all.

I will try that alternator trick cheers, I can hopefully tick the alternator off the list then.

I know a 10 minute drive isnt going to fully charge a battery but surely when turning the car off and then immediately trying to start it up again it would atleast do something, not total silence.

thanks for all help
 
Thought I would fully charge the battery overnight and having put it back in today, the car still won't start. The starter is cranking now, but really slow.
Really can't work it out now, any more suggestions?
This did all happen after I installed the ICE but I also installed the AEM CAI, could I have damaged anything whilst installing this? Also to add, when I use jump leads to start the car, it starts without a problem.
 
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It will be your battery not holding a charge. Halfords do a free battery check by all accounts.
 
I imagine your battery is finished. Once it's been fully discharged it will struggle to hold a full charge again.
 
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