Rain electric problems

Rain electric problems

Author
Discussion

dojo

Original Poster:

741 posts

135 months

Thursday 16th October 2014
quotequote all
With all this rain my car has decided to have a sense of humour bypass and refuse to start in the morning... I know I need to get it sorted proper but I really need the old beast to get me to work in the morning.
I turn the key and the engine just keeps turning over and over not firing... Later in the day it will stutter in to life and once it's been run out it then starts fine... I live on a steep Hill,in the morning if I won't turn over can I just bump it?

paintman

7,687 posts

190 months

Thursday 16th October 2014
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Providing it starts before you run out of hill!
Charge the battery with a battery charger then, ideally in low light/darkness get someone to turn the engine over whilst you look at the leads etc to see if you can see any arcing.
Spraying the electrics with a dewatering fluid may help, as would cleaning any dirt off plug leads/coil packs/coil/connectors/distributor caps etc as damp dirt will conduct electricity - I once spent several hours on a friend's car with a non-start issue in damp weather which turned out to be a lot of damp dirt around the coil tower (the bit the coil-to-distributor-cap lead goes into)& took a couple of seconds with a clean rag to restore normal service but I only spotted it as it began to get dark!

Locknut

653 posts

137 months

Friday 17th October 2014
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It would help if we knew a few basic things like type and age of car. It would be even better if we knew the type of ignition system (if it's a petrol engine). A single coil with leads and distributor could have dampness problems as already suggested. In relation to the bump-start question: is the transmission manual or automatic?

dojo

Original Poster:

741 posts

135 months

Friday 17th October 2014
quotequote all
Thanks. Its a 02,1.8T bora.
Will look over the leads as suggested above... Let's hope it starts today... Got to love a morning lottery!