My car got towed for parking in a temp construction zone 6 days ago. Have driven it just a few short trips since (city living). Now it won’t start this afternoon after driving it in the morning. Turn the key and a few of the notification lights on the dash come on, I get a clicking noise and nothing happens. Radio and windows were still working at first but not now.
2013 CRV - never had any issues with it and it has less than 20k miles on it (like I said - city living).
Any ideas? Could the tow have caused some issue which is now manifesting itself? It was locked and was pulled from behind up onto a flat bed and towed that way.
Have your battery tested.
And if you cannot take the car for a decent drive a few times a week, and you have access to a 115VAC socket, consider a trickle charger. Engines that only go on occasional short drives slowly lose their charge. A battery needs to be “topped off” occasionally.
Likely this problem would have popped up even if you were not towed.
Battery connections are the first place to begin when you have a “No Crank” situation. Even
if you have a new battery, if the connections are loose, dirty or corroded, you will not be
allowing the full flow of current to pass thru the connections. The connection may be
enough to turn on the lights, but not enough for the huge flow that is needed to operate the
starter. This is where many people say that they know the battery is good….”because the
lights come on”. This is no more a battery test than licking a 9volt battery. It only tells you that there is electricity…not how many volts or the amperage that flows from the battery.
Jump starting may have wiggled the terminal just enough to allow the current to pass and start the engine, but tomorrow you have the same problem.
First remove the cables from the battery and use a wire brush to remove any corrosion and dirt from the battery posts and the cable terminals. There is a tool with a round wire brush for this purpose, found at any auto parts store for less than $10 http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/kd-tools-terminal-battery-brush-kdt201/25980576-P?searchTerm=terminal+brush.
Before connecting the cables, apply a coating of di-electric grease to the battery posts this will keep oxygen away from the connection so that it will not corrode as fast.
It is just as important that the other end of the cables also have a clean connection. Remove the positive cable from the battery again so that you do not short anything out. Follow both cables to their far ends, remove this connection and wire brush the connection and the cable terminal clean and retighten these connections.
If there was work done recently, there may have been an “engine to body” ground that was not installed following the work. These grounds normally run from the rear of the engine to the firewall and are uninsulated and most are a braided wire. If any of these are found unattached…reattach them.
Remember….this is not a “Sherman Tank” don’t over tighten the connections.
Tight…tight………………too tight…broke!!!
My wife’s parents haven’t driven much in the last three weeks. They tried to start their car and there was nothing. I checked the battery date and it is 2 years old. It’s a 2003 LeSabre, and the battery is under the rear seat. Jump starting the car requires connecting positive to positive under the hood and negative to a suitable ground, again under the hood. My cables wouldn’t reach since the care was nose into the garage. We had it towed to the dealer and it turned out to be a run down battery. It might just be the same for you. Check the date on your battery. If it is more than 5 years old, it may need replacement. If younger, it might just need a charge.
+1
The OP should chalk this incident up to…coincidence.
And, as has been stated multiple times, your battery is probably not in good shape because of the limited amount of recharging that it gets as a result of the local driving pattern.
I just hope that the OP is following the Severe Service schedule for oil changes as a result of those driving patterns, otherwise a weak battery will be the least of his problems.
If it had anything to do w/the tow, most likely it was that the battery got jostled and the cable-connectors are a little loose on the battery posts. First thing I’d do in this situation is recharge the battery w/a battery charger overnight and clean and tighten the battery post connectors. Good time to check that the battery is filled with distilled water to the mark, if you’ve got that type of battery.
