Celica Forums General Discussion General HELP ME!

MY CAR WON'T START!!!!!

It turns over...but then starts clicking rapidly like an automatic rifle without ammo...it's really cold so are the fuel lines frozen over or something? that happened to my friend and he heated them up with a hair dryer and it worked...help me what should i do?!?!/!/!/!

Your battery is junk man. Get some jumper cables on there.

You mean it turns over like a couple of times, then the starter stops cranking, and then it just clicks? If thats it, and it turns over slowly, it might just be a low battery. Try jumping it.

that's what i initially thought...but my battery indicator thing says 'good'...but maybe that's f'ed up...and my fans and stereo work...

Well, the way to tell is, when it turns over, does it crank normally, or does it seem slow and weak? Your battery can have enough power to power the stereo, etc, but still be too weak, especially in the cold, to start properly.

Try jumping it; you have nothing to lose by trying.

yeah that makes sense now...every other time I witnessed a dead battery...absolutely nothing worked...so i guess i didn't even think that it would be within inches of its life and not be able to start. But i guess that + cold weather = dead. my parents have both sets of jumpers and no friends are around...so it's in my garage charging up...after a few hours i'll go ahead and try it. When i plugged it in it said it had 4 DC amperes of power...i dont know what a full batt is but...anyway thanks guys!

what kind of battery are you running on it now? if your running the stock battery than thats probably your problem because I know the stock battery is not good with cold starts as from what you stated above in your first post.

yeah it's my stock battery. When my car didn't start i was in a huge rush and it didn't even hit me that the battery in there is the one in it when it was purchased in 2000 This will give me a good reason to go optima

Red Top Optima is good it's what I have btw and I love it.

how much are they? they're like 100 or 110 arent they?

car just started...yayyyyyyy...next stop...auto zone

congrats

All right!

Optima is the way to go.

yeah...the dumbass thing was...last night it was 5 degrees...windy as hell...and there was snow on my car...and it started up the first try...a little slow but the first try nonetheless...then i let it run like 10 mins or so and shut it off...then this morning it was dead...so i'm having a bad day because i can't drive my celi...adn then i fuck up my calc final...grrr...lol

thanks for your input guys

yeah man I bought my Optima at Autozone and it was like 119 brand new! hella worth it ill tell ya

Stock battery sucks.

I had it die on me. I checked the indicator over and over and it said it was fine.

The flash point of gasoline is about -97F, meaning that it will still burn at 97 degrees below zero. So unless ur livin on the moon I doubt the gas is frozen

Just buy a new battery

same thing here, but battery was new, it was the starter, seems wierd that it had to happen on a cold day, its the lemon of my car coming out, never fails

I knew the actual fuel wouldn't freeze...i was like maybe a little bit of water got in there somehow and froze but i was like how would water get in there...and shrugged it off...lol

If there was a little water in the fuel, it could freeze up in the cold. The water can get into the fuel by condensation in the fuel tank; it tend to happen more in cold weather. During the winter (where it gets cold) its always a good idea to add some gas treatment now and then (check to make sure it removes water from the fuel).

The 'eye' on the stock battery is a poor excuse for a guide to go by.
The stock battery is about worthless. Cold weather and wet weather takes it toll on batteries.

I replaced mine with a Sears Diehard Gold. 84 month replacement. 36 months 100% value, anything after that is pro-rated. I won't have the car that long.
If it goes bad within the 36 months . .. free battery.

Optima is a good battery. Paying for the name.

Lastly, use care 'jumping' the Celica. My neighbor has a GTs. He jumped his battery. . . fried the ECM. He's a lawyer. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy!