96 Skylark Wont Start

The car won’t start until all of the red lights on the dash board light up. Sometimes it’s immediate, other times it takes up to 15 minutes.

How old is the battery? Bad connection or ground?

Battery is fairly new, it will turn over, just won’t engage until the board lights up.

You can spend countless hours and dollars to fix this. I have an idea that might run you a thousand dollars or more and not fix anything. Instead, this is pretty old car. I guess you can’t afford a new one, so what, you can make do with this one. Right now I guess you need to start your day a little early to start the car so you can get to get to work on time. I bet it will start every day if you are patient.

You would not have an after market antitheft device on it, would you?

You might want to clarify the thing about the lights on the dash - but in general I would ignore this as not having any relevance. I would also say it is safe to ignore kizwiki’s response.

How many miles are on this car? Give some clue as to its basic maintenance/repair history - spark plugs, wires, other ignition components etc. Battery is fairly new - anything else that might be relevant?

Is this a cold start problem only? Warm/hot only? Doesn’t matter? Have you had a shop look at it?

In general if you turn the key and the car has healthy crank but won’t fire up then you lack either spark or fuel. You can find out which by getting a spark tester & can of starting fluid at an auto parts store. Use the spark tester to check for spark. If you have spark, blow some starter fluid into the intake to see if that gets it to fire. This narrows it down to one system.

What happens if you try jump starting it with another car?

Play around with the shift lever. Shift into Neutral and try starting it. Foot firm on the brake.

Dash lights should have nothing to do with the problem. Focus elsewhere, try different things.