Electrical Problems - Car Won't Start
 

I bought a 2013 BRZ Limited (manual trans.) about a week and a half ago and last weekend did the DIY from this forum to swap the roof antenna from the "stick" to the 2015 "shark fin" style:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76922

It was a hot day so I had the doors open and was running the fan. I had not disconnected the battery during the swap.

Since then, the car won't start. When I try to, various lights on the instrument panel, center console, and mirror flicker and flash. The engine does not try to turn over. Here are some things I've tried to fix the problem so far:

1. Starting the car from the "accessory" mode
2. Disconnecting the battery, both negative and positive terminals
3. Checking every small fuse in the engine bay and the driver side footwell plus the ones with clear tops. They were all OK.
4. Disconnecting the shark fin antenna
5. Reconnecting the original antenna

None of these steps have solved the problem. I took a video to illustrate the issue. In it you can see what happens when I try to start the car:

http://vid.me/PzhN

Can anyone provide tips on how to get the car working again? Any ideas what went wrong in the first place? Any help you can provide would be much appreciated.

Battery too low?

charge battery if still no go ring dealer its under warantee.

bet you killed the battery by having the doors or trunk open during the install. Did you try a jump start?

Yep, sounds like a low battery. Jumping it should get you going again, but properly charging the battery would be better long-term.

When I was test driving BRZs before purchasing mine, one of the cars they put me in had a low battery and did exactly what you described - flashing lights, but none of the slow starter noise I was used to from my last car. It's a new car thing, I think.

Thanks for the advice, everybody! I'll pick up a battery charger today and try charging the battery.

let us know if it works!

I got the battery charger, removed the battery from the car to charge in my garage because it was raining, and proceeded to charge the battery. In the morning I checked the charger's status and it just said it was still charging. That night I checked again and it was "at least 80%" charged, but the manual recommended continuing to charge until full. This morning I checked again and it was indeed full, so I reinstalled the battery into the car and... it works! The car started right up twice this morning and once this evening.

Thank you all for your help!

This is NOT sarcasm (I know it sounds like it though)


So the lessons learned should be:


1) When you are powered up with the car not running stop every once in a while to start it and let it charge.


2) When your car won't start the first thing you should check is your battery.


3) A basic $5 multi meter is a really good investment (See lesson 2)!

Great to hear that you got it running again. Be aware that sometimes after a battery is drained (esp stock batteries like this one) it may never hold a charge again like it should. So, if it goes dead again, get a new battery.

If you have a Harbor Freight Tools around you, they sometimes give multi-meters away when you subscribe to their mailing lists and sale ads. The sale ads have "free" coupons on them and the multi-meter is sometimes given away as one of the 'freebies'.

Great tips, everyone! Thanks!