Intermittent starter button
Discussion
Had a bit of a heart stopper yesterday. I'd been out in the car for an hour or so and on my return, parked up in the drive. It was a baking hot day so I left the windows half open so the interior didn't cook.went back to the car a couple of hours later, put the key in, turned on the ignition, hit the button. Nothing! Turned off, repeated procedure, still nothing! Tried another couple of times, still nothing and getting worried. At this point I put the windows up and had the AC running for a couple of minutes to cool my fevered brow whilst I scratched my head. Tried again and bingo she fired straight up. Was it something to do with the heat in the cabin causing some electrical connection behind the button to expand and so break a circuit? I have no idea. Anyone else had starter button problems for no apparent reason?
Edited by Russwhitehouse on Wednesday 17th July 10:33
Don't worry yet.
I occasionally get this with an 09 car. Can only assume that it is like a computer, and so needs the same treatment. Start from the begining again, and it usually then works properly.
Can be awkward if one stalls the engine, this happens and other motorists are held up.
Edited by Jon39 on Wednesday 17th July 11:34
I had that after it came back from service. I slotted in the key and nothing happened. Lights fired up but starter motor did not engage. Called AM Assist and they fired it up no problem. It turned out that I was slotting in the ECU too fast so a much slower movement made it work. Now - I'm pretty sure that the speed of which i slotted in the key hadn't changed (owned the car for more than 3 years) but that they had probably made a tweak to the software at the service which required a slower insertion speed. So my advice is: Try to slot in the ECU slightly slower than usually.
Russwhitehouse said:
AMDBSNick said:
My guess would be foot not fully depressing the clutch
Fraid not. That was my first reaction. The car was in park anyway and fires without foot on the clutch, although I did try it anyway just to be sureI had something similar which turned out to be a fault immobiliser, but I gather that's much more rare.
The switch is surprisingly easy to swap, so if you take it to a workshop they should be able to test that in a few mins.
ETA: If it's the clutch switch, then the light round the Start button won't turn red.
PiloteAM said:
There is an issue with the clutch switch failing.
I had something similar which turned out to be a fault immobiliser, but I gather that's much more rare.
The switch is surprisingly easy to swap, so if you take it to a workshop they should be able to test that in a few mins.
ETA: If it's the clutch switch, then the light round the Start button won't turn red.
Ah hah! The red light did not come on, so sounds like you may have nailed it there. As I say all well today, but will be prepared if it happens again.I had something similar which turned out to be a fault immobiliser, but I gather that's much more rare.
The switch is surprisingly easy to swap, so if you take it to a workshop they should be able to test that in a few mins.
ETA: If it's the clutch switch, then the light round the Start button won't turn red.
Russwhitehouse said:
Fraid not. That was my first reaction. The car was in park anyway and fires without foot on the clutch, although I did try it anyway just to be sure
I'm confused by this response. What you mean the car was in Park? Do you mean Park as in an automatic? Because then I wouldn't understand why you would be talking about your clutch pedal. And if you do have a clutch pedal, there is no way you should be able to start it without the foot on the pedal.KarlFranz said:
I'm confused by this response. What you mean the car was in Park? Do you mean Park as in an automatic? Because then I wouldn't understand why you would be talking about your clutch pedal. And if you do have a clutch pedal, there is no way you should be able to start it without the foot on the pedal.
Sorry, didn't make myself clear. Yes the car is an auto and was left in "park". I did also try pressing on the pedal just to see if it made any difference but it didn't. Normally it would not be necessary but by then I was grasping at straws. My apologies for the terminology error.F1 NDW said:
How can you have the AC on without the engine running? It's not possible. Do you mean you ran the interior fan? Maybe that did cool something down.
By that I mean ignition on, AC button lit up and cold air blasting from the vents. As you say, did seem to make a difference by cooling something down.Russwhitehouse said:
F1 NDW said:
How can you have the AC on without the engine running? It's not possible. Do you mean you ran the interior fan? Maybe that did cool something down.
By that I mean ignition on, AC button lit up and cold air blasting from the vents. As you say, did seem to make a difference by cooling something down.A few cars have an electric motor instead, but I don't think Gaydon Astons do.
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