5 Common Reasons Why Your Car Won’t Start & Troubleshooting Tips

by IndianAuto Team | 04/07/2018
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These are the 5 most common reasons why your car won’t start & troubleshooting tips.

1. The spark plugs fail

In internal combustion engines, spark plugs function as a conduit delivering electric current from the ignition system to the combustion chamber. Here, the current will ignite the mixture of compressed air and fuel, generating the energy to start the engine. These little important plugs burn out progressively over time and they are consumable, or in other words, spark plugs need to be replaced once in a while to keep your engine at top performance. Good news is that changing sparking plugs is pretty much a simple task and doesn’t require a lot of time, and you can do it by yourself or have it done at a workshop.

Fail spark plug

Fortunately enough, it doesn’t take much pain to change spark plugs. Yes! You can do it yourself!

2. Car battery needs recharging

Not many people know that even when you turn your car off, there is still this certain amount of energy needed for some devices/items to function properly. It leads to the accumulated loss of electricity even when your car is not used for quite a while. Of course, this is no big deal since it is necessary, and can be easily avoided by charging your car battery frequently andchange the car battery as well. However, there are some cases that cars are not used often, and left in the garage for a long time. As a result, the battery will gradually run low on electricity and end up dead. And this will be huge a disaster when you, out of sudden, need to use the car and find out that you can’t get it started.

check your car battery

Turn it into the habit to check your car battery for its power volume

3. Car security system malfunctions

This device defers car theft by preventing the engine from working when the driver is not around. It could only be activated by the correct numeric code which is input through a remote control. In many modern cars, this can be either a built-in device or aftermarket installed one. Convenient as it may sound, it is far from working perfectly and smoothly. The device itself, like any other electronics, can crash and turn tricky occasionally by certain errors, and it brings troubles to car owners. The expected symptoms include not-starting engine, locking or unlocking problems. If any of these errors occur, you will be blocked out of the car. One solution to this is to change key battery regularly, but the process can cause damage to the transponder chip if you are not used to the task or careful enough. Best advice is to contact your dealer to get a new key which is, unfortunately, not cheap at all.

car key

The ironic downside to the security system is when even owner is denied the access to their own car

4. Battery terminals need replacements

Most of the time the battery terminals attached to the car by the manufacturer are made of metals. This material normally doesn’t have a high resistance of rust. As a matter of fact, corrosion progressively builds up between your terminals and wires, and greatly diminish the conductibility of your car’s battery. And if things go on without any intervention, the engine will not be able to receive energy from a battery for fuel ignition. The only tip for car owner is to get rid of the old battery terminals and replace them with new ones of high quality, which could withstand corrosion efficiently and have a longer lifespan.

dirty battery terminals

Nasty-looking, isn’t it? But actually, this is not the worst form corrosion can take

5. Fuel injection needle is choked with dirt

Choked fuel injection needle takes more time to feed the engine with enough fuel to start the vehicle. And in the worst scenario where the nozzle is totally clogged with dirt, sediment, and residue, it will take forever for the engine to start. This is just the result of a longtime use and can be easily avoided by a consistent cleaning schedule.

Fuel interjection needle dirty

Another nasty-looking scene which results from, again, car owner’s negligence

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How to Fix a Car that Won't Start When You Turn the Key

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