So now my car won't start

So today i decided to put in my new radio in my car, easy as can be, unplug and then plug back in. after i was done went to start the car to go for a drive and it won't start.

now there is some damn electrical gremlin going on here, car doesn't crank.

when the key is in the on position lights on the dash come on, fuel pump doesn't turn on(can hear it kind of pulsing)but it doesn't fully turn on. if you try to start the car nothing happens and all the lights on the dash turn off, wtf. also with the key in the on position if you hit the defrost button you can hear a solenoid clicking and the dash lights blink.

if you hit the hazard button you get a buzzing noise from behind the dash, if you try to turn on the lights the dash lights go dim and the lights don't come on.

i am not very good at figuring out issues like this, i checked every ground i could. and as long as i was using my multimeter correctly the fuel pump is only getting between 4 and 8 volts.

also i don't believe any power was getting to the main relay(again i fail on the multimeter) a guy i know that's good with wiring was supposed to stop by but he never made it.

not sure where to start

any ideas are appreciated

 

Dumb question - does it work if you pull the radio out?

 

^first thing i tried, currently the car is partially dissassembled so i could have access to the wiring.

 

check fuses?

try a new battery?

 

all the fuses looked good, batt should be fine. i'm pretty sure there has got to be a bad relay or ground or other issue like that. just have to have time to get back to it and try to track things down.

 

test the voltage and connections at the battery. sounds like you're not getting enough voltage to trip any relays (hence the buzzing with the hazards.....not enough juice for it to work properly).

could also be a grounding issue........but my first instinct is drained battery. possible you had something on while you were swapping radios?

 

Sounds like a drained battery to me as well. Try checking your battery connections and check your battery voltage. Should be at least 12 V across the battery.

 

fixed!!

i'm going to chock this one up under thinking to complicated instead of going to the basic stuff first.

it was a bad connection (corroded wire) at the positive side of the battery.

what through me off was when i checked the voltage on the batt it was still right where it should be.

now i get to put everything back together that i took apart just for fun :laugh:

 

haha, good stuff.


glad you got it fixed!