Car wouldn't start, and then nothing changed and it worked fine...wtf

[Spicer66]

So heres a scenario for you detectives out there...
Its -30 celsius today, my car starts and runs fine all morning. I go out for subway on my lunch break, car starts and runs fine, I leave subway and the car won't start. All electronics working 100% minus the fact that when I go to turn it over there is no noise at all, no clicking no hum no nothing, and also the digital speedo on the tach is blank. I call a tow truck and return to my car an hour later, it starts up perfectly fine on the first try just as the tow truck pulls up.

Any ideas what just happened? The car has less than 20 km and is 2 days old.

Ask me questions if you need to, I would like to hear some of your thoughts on what you think happened.

[Asphalt~86]

Originally Posted by Spicer66

So heres a scenario for you detectives out there...
Its -30 celsius today, my car starts and runs fine all morning. I go out for subway on my lunch break, car starts and runs fine, I leave subway and the car won't start. All electronics working 100% minus the fact that when I go to turn it over there is no noise at all, no clicking no hum no nothing, and also the digital speedo on the tach is blank. I call a tow truck and return to my car an hour later, it starts up perfectly fine on the first try just as the tow truck pulls up.

Any ideas what just happened? The car has less than 20 km and is 2 days old.

Ask me questions if you need to, I would like to hear some of your thoughts on what you think happened.

What did you get from Subway? It's obvious the cause is whatever you ate.

Background: I've been an FBI field investigator for Criminal Minds for 4 seasons now.

[Spicer66]

Cold cut combo, all the veggies, and a lot of sauce, so much sauce...

[gmookher]

x files

[alan.chalkley]

Resistive connection on battery terminal?
Frozen electrolyte inside battery?
Electronics does weird things when supplied with low or excessive voltage.
If it happens again have a multimeter ready to measure voltages and resistive connections.

[Spicer66]

The tow truck driver thought it might be something to do with the car not recognizing the clutch was engaged, the car audio installers at my work think its a defective immobilizer, I think its shitty that a 2 day old car had this happen, and the saleperson I dealt with thinks it might be a bad connection somewhere.

[Laika]

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22351

I had the same issue as you twice now. Both times the car started on second or third attempt as if nothing was wrong. It's never as cold as Alberta, where I live. But you did have extra sauce...


I was going to just carry a multi meter with me in the car for next time this happens but I'm worried the batteries in the multi-meter might die in the cold. So I'm bringing a back up multimeter that will test out of my original multi meter before I actually pop the hood and check out the voltage the battery is putting out.

[Jesse]

my guess?

the key, (which has an engine immobilizer) somehow lost communication with the body ecu for a short period. ive seen this happen on a few toyotas before, it may even have a code stored if thats the case.

but i cant remember if it would crank over or not in that situation, but, just a wild guess

[Spicer66]

Shocking new development! Not really, but when I went to move the car into the garage tonight it took about 5 seconds of cranking for the engine to turn over, much longer than any other time I've started it. Am I wrong to be a bit paranoid about this?

[Ingen]

I am betting the clutch switch in our cars hates thermal cycling. Pump it a few times next time this happens, someone.

Also, that's cold as hell and you probably oughta have an optima gel cell or similar cold ready battery.

[Captain Insano]

My car was a lot harder to crank over and start yesterday after it sat outside at work in 20 degree F weather all day. Took about 5 seconds of cranking. It has never done that before.