Hi guys,

I have a new issue and would like to pick your brains for ideas. Last night I washed my car, wiped it off and parked it in the garage. This morning, when I tried to start it, the dash lit up, everything looked and acted fine, except the engine would not turn over.

I tried a few things:
- made sure my key is working....locked and unlocked the car, alarm was set and disarmed
- turned the key without my foot on the brake and it displayed the icon to press the brake....I did while turning the key, but no diff
- I checked all the fuses behind the glove box....all seems fine.

When I turn the key, I hear some "action" going on in the engine compartment like some buzzing for a few seconds, a couple of clicks etc. But there is nothing when I turn the key...no clicking....noting at all.

If you guys have any ideas or prior experience with this issue, please share. :-)

Thanks.

-Rob

 

Maybe key ignition itself might be bad.

 

Are you talking about the key itself? I only have one copy.

 

No i'm talking about where the key goes into. I could be wrong on the diagnoses, but just an thought.

 

Perhaps your starter is toast? You said you heard noise coming from the engine compartment? Its probably the electric pumps for coolant and such kicking in before the car starts. Other clicking noises could be attributed to the starter being fried?

 

I found a post on the web suggesting that this could be an EWS module, which is the inhibitor module or the other possibility is the starter motor. They say the EWS module is the most common problem for this symptom. They suggested to disconnect from the battery for at least one hour and the module should reset. Nothing changed after disconnecting from the battery for two hours, so I started to do some further troubleshooting.

I measured the voltages on the solenoid/starter while a helper turned the key to start the engine, and it looked like the solenoid was getting the correct voltages. At this point my diagnosis is the starter (you are right), which looks and acts dead completely and does not make any noise or movement. The noises come from other areas, solenoids, electric water pumps etc as you said. So I am going back tomorrow again to double check my measurements. The starter is a total bi.ch to replace, so I wanna make sure I nailed the right part. I will let you guys know what I found. Thanks for all the help and ideas so far!