2003 Chrysler PT Cruiser, not starting

Hello everyone, my car is a 2003 Chysler PT Cruiser with 104,000 miles on it. My car was working fine 2 days ago. The morning after I got in and tried to start the car but it only cranked, no click from the starter, nothing. That was the first day the weather has been at freezing point this year. The cars headlights can be turned on and are bright until I try to crank the car over. My battery is brand new and reads at 12.4v, the positive terminal had significant corrosion and I have it cleaned as good as it can get now.

My alternator in the car was replaced last year so I feel like that should be good. I don’t have a partner at the moment to help me check to see if the voltage drains while cranking in the battery. I checked my fuses and relays, the fuses are not blown and the relays gave me an ohm reading of around 70 ohms each. I have so far changed the ignition switch with a new one and nothing new happened while trying to crank. Today I pulled out the starter suspecting it even though it doesn’t click while cranking. I took it to Autozone and it tested correctly for everything, the motor spins just fine. At this point i’m getting really desperate because I can’t figure this out.

I don’t know if it is worth noting but the previous day before my car stopped turning on I filled my radiator as it has a very small leak in the top left corner and got low. I filled it and purged any air I could out of the system with the cap off. This was the last thing I did before it stopped working, there were no signs to me that showed something was wrong, there were no crazy noises or anything like that. Thank you for reading, I hope some of this helps.

Cranking means the starter is turning the engine over.

Does the engine crank over or not?

Tester

Sorry, I mean the car sounds like it trying to turn over but doesn’t because something is stopping it?

Remove the spark plugs and then try cranking the engine over.

Tester

The engine may be seized. Check to see if there is any oil in the engine!!!

If you remove the passenger tire, and remove the plastic covers…you should be able to get a wrench on the crankshaft bolt. Turning it clockwise will tell you if the engine is seized. You don’t have to turn it far, and if you have the plugs out it should turn pretty easy.

Yosemite

Okay, thank you Yosemite and Tester. I am going to take the spark plugs out and try to crank it over first. Then if it doesn’t work i’ll try turning the crankshaft bolt. I will have to do this first thing in the morning as my neighbors will get pissed if I impact wrench my tire off at this time.

When I remove the spark plugs, is there anything I should be looking out for like in the cylinders? Also, if the engine is seized are you saying it would be easy to turn the crankshaft? Or would it be harder? Thank you.

Yes.

If coolant blows out of any spark plugs holes, the engine has a blown head gasket.

Tester

If the engine is seized you will not be able to turn it over, even with the spark plugs out.