lols2000

Drove the car, parked it, and hour later went out to start it.

Turn the key and the dash turns on everything seems to be normal. Lights, radio all electrics seem fine.

When I push the start button I hear nothing.

I don't hear the starter trying to turn. I don't hear the engine turning over. It's as if the starter isn't even getting power.

I cleaned the battery cables and it didn't help.

I checked all the fuses under the dash and under the hood, everything is normal.

I tried boosting the battery, didn't help.

I hear a very faint humming sound when I hold down the start button. Sounds like the fuel pump or something? Definitely not the starter. I don't hear the humming if I push the start button without the clutch pedal pushed in.

Strangely, if I push the start button, the ABS light will come on, and then won't come off until I turn off the dash and turn the key again.

Any other ideas before I tow it to a dealership?

Not Sure

have you tried bumpstarting it?

I don't really know what's wrong with it but if you can bumpstart it you can at least drive it to the dealer.

lols2000

I tried jumpstarting with another car (+ and - on my + and - battery posts, + an - on the good cars battery posts) and there was no difference

Not Sure

I mean push-start...

http://www.ehow.com/how_7414_push-start-car.html

Fast Jack

Check:starter,starter cut relay,clutch interlock switch,ignition switch/wire and engine start switch.Also poor ground ,clutch interlock switch.

lols2000

OK, so this morning first thing I do is try to start it like normal and just like before I was getting the same symptoms with no start.

I push started the car and it started up like it should and drove with absolutely no problems to the dealership. After I parked it, just for fun, I checked to see if I could start it... and it did.

So I turned it off, waited a few minutes and tried again, and it started as if nothing happened.

So the question is... WTF? I declined to have the car tested at the dealership since I knew that with nothing wrong with the car there is absolutely nothing they could diagnose.

Does anybody have any clue as to what could have caused this to happen? And if I should worry about it in the future?

Tharg!

Mind you i'm just guessing....

I'm not a professional mechanic or nophin...

but for grins and giggles i wonder if somehow the solonoid got "stuck" somehow ... pushing the button wouldn't cause a tick/click (since it was stuck), and last i checked when you didn't allow electric motors to move when current was applied they tend to hum... If the clutch wasn't pushed in then the car wouldn't let current be applied... (so no hum)

So push starting it might have made it "unstick"

Another thing... I think if you were missing a tooth on your flywheel you might have heard more of a whine than a hum with the button pushed... but could be wrong. I've heard sometimes that if you are missing teeth on the flywheel the solonoid/starter would have worked normally, but no teeth to engage with ... when you push started it and then stopped where you happened to have stopped the flywheel would have teeth there, so normal start.


as i said ... just a guess.

-J