yippeekiay
Well-known member
I was just popping out to get some milk, when I started the car it went to start then stopped. I just thought I'd let go of the key too early and started it again but it wouldn't start.
At first it sounded like the pin in the starter wasn't engaging the flywheel as this happened on my last car and a new starter motor was needed. Anyway, to check this I put it in gear and tried again and the car moved no problem on the starter motor.
Now I started to get confused...the starter motor was working fine but the car wouldn't kick into life. Instead I was getting a weird noise from the engine as if everything was turning but there was no compression as if the valves were both staying open. i.e. no chugg chugging? sound from the piston compression like you normally get from the engine when starting it.
I checked to see if the new cambelt was ok and found it was turning the cams ok so I was totally flumoxed. Decided to try and bump the car and low and behold it hardly needed more than a walking pace to fire into life. When it fired I'm sure I heard a fairly loud cracking noise but my mate said he thought the car just skidded on a stone or something when I bumped it off.
Went round the block and as I was moving I switched it off and put it into neutral then tried starting it so that I could still bump it off if it didn't but it started with no problem. Put it back on the drive and tried starting it again and it kicked into life seemingly better than it normally does considering it used to be a bitch after a short run unless I give it a few seconds to prime itself.
Sorry for the long winded story but has anyone any ideas what this could have been as it's doing my head in thinking it may happen somewhere not so close to my house. I can't understand why the car can be moved on the starter motor but not fired into life out of gear but kicked into life with very little effort when bumped. If the starter had simply just spun without engaging then I'd know what was up but it seems there's no problem with it but possibly is with the engine itself. :?
At first it sounded like the pin in the starter wasn't engaging the flywheel as this happened on my last car and a new starter motor was needed. Anyway, to check this I put it in gear and tried again and the car moved no problem on the starter motor.
Now I started to get confused...the starter motor was working fine but the car wouldn't kick into life. Instead I was getting a weird noise from the engine as if everything was turning but there was no compression as if the valves were both staying open. i.e. no chugg chugging? sound from the piston compression like you normally get from the engine when starting it.
I checked to see if the new cambelt was ok and found it was turning the cams ok so I was totally flumoxed. Decided to try and bump the car and low and behold it hardly needed more than a walking pace to fire into life. When it fired I'm sure I heard a fairly loud cracking noise but my mate said he thought the car just skidded on a stone or something when I bumped it off.
Went round the block and as I was moving I switched it off and put it into neutral then tried starting it so that I could still bump it off if it didn't but it started with no problem. Put it back on the drive and tried starting it again and it kicked into life seemingly better than it normally does considering it used to be a bitch after a short run unless I give it a few seconds to prime itself.
Sorry for the long winded story but has anyone any ideas what this could have been as it's doing my head in thinking it may happen somewhere not so close to my house. I can't understand why the car can be moved on the starter motor but not fired into life out of gear but kicked into life with very little effort when bumped. If the starter had simply just spun without engaging then I'd know what was up but it seems there's no problem with it but possibly is with the engine itself. :?