Hi, I know very little about cars so I am coming to this forum in the hopes that someone can provide me with some insight and direction. Over the last several weeks my car (2010 Hyundai Accent, 60k miles) started randomly stalling on me. I took it to my mechanic earlier this week and all 4 ignition coils were replaced. Yesterday I accidentally left my headlights on for about 2.5 hours and the car was completely dead. I got it jumped and drove it around for about 35 minutes. I had the battery tested at Autozone and they said it is good. Then last night it stalled in the McDonald’s line - I was able to restart it and get home but this morning it is completely dead again. Also twice yesterday after starting up the car the rpm dial wasn’t moving at all. The car was accelerating just fine but the rpm dial did not reflect this. Of the several times I drove it yesterday it only did this twice. My mechanic is closed until Tuesday. Can anyone tell me what they think is going on and what I should do? Someone told me to bring the battery to Autozone to get it fully charged, but does that explain the rpm dial not moving?
When you say completely dead, you mean no electrical when the key is turned. The battery may not be fully charged. How do the battery connections look, clean, tight? It may have 12vdc on the battery, but it may not be fully charged. Is this the original battery? If so, it may be weak after letting it drain until dead. You may want to save yourself the hassle and replace it. The stalling is a different issue from the not starting. Have the codes pulled at the auto parts store before they replace your battery. Report codes back.
Driving a car for 35 minutes will not charge a battery. At four years it might be time for a new battery or at least get it charged. Leaving the lights for that long may damage an older battery or shorten its life.
Thanks for your responses! It is not the original battery - it is about 1.5 years old. The weird thing is that my dad went this afternoon to take a look at my car and he said he started it several times with no problems. Battery connections are clean and tight.
You may have an intermittent “no start” condition caused by a faulty neutral safety switch (if the car has an automatic transmission). Next time it won’t start, try shifting into neutral before cranking the engine. If that works, the problem is a faulty neutral safety switch.
That would not explain the random stalling, which can be caused by a faulty crankshaft position sensor (CKP).