It’s -4 degrees F outside, my block heater was plugged in 3.5 hours ago, I start my car (which has only 1517 miles on it, and I bought 8 months prior), drive about a mile and half to get some food, park the car, turn it off, go inside. When I was done, I came back outside to my car, got in it, turn the key, and the first thing I notice is that none of the dash lights come on when the key is in the run position. Then I turn the key to start, and I get nothing. I turn the key repeatedly, take it out, keep trying, lock and unlock the car, wiggle the steering wheel, trying different things, and after 50 or so attempts to start the car, I pop the hood to look at the battery. It looks fine, no corrosion, and the connections are tight.
I use my Scangauge OBD II reader to read the voltage, and it reads 12.0 volts, which means the actual voltage was 12.15-12.25 volts, which is more than enough to at least crank the engine. But it wasn’t doing anything. Normally when you try to start the car, the check engine, battery, airbag, cold engine lights, etc, all come on and go away once the engine is started. However, none of those lights came on. After about 15 minutes of trying to start the car, I call Subaru roadside assistance.
After nearly 15 minutes of talking to them and almost getting a tow truck sent my way, all of the sudden the warning lights magically come on like they’re supposed to, and the gauges do their little sweep, and I hear the seat belt chine go off. I left the key in the run position the whole time while on the phone with Subaru roadside assistance, and when all the lights came on, the turned the key to start the car, and voila it started right up.
FORTUNATELY this happened on a day where I was off work and being delayed 30 minutes was a mere inconvenience rather than a potential getting into trouble at work for being late. I’m not sure what happened, but I very much doubt it was the battery or the cold, because the car started the first time. It was not a matter of there not being enough battery power to start the car, because the battery had plenty of juice to start, and it started after a mysterious delay, and the temperature had only risen about 1 degree during the course of this happening, so it couldn’t been the cold. This seems like an electrical glitch in the ignition system to me. If it happens again, I will be doing video documentation, and updating the complaint.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
It’s -4 degrees F outside, my block heater was plugged in 3.5 hours ago, I start my car (which has only 1517 miles on it, and I bought 8 months prior), drive about a mile and half to get some food, park the car, turn it off, go inside. When I was done, I came back outside to my car, got in it, turn the key, and the first thing I notice is that none of the dash lights come on when the key is in the run position. Then I turn the key to start, and I get nothing. I turn the key repeatedly, take it out, keep trying, lock and unlock the car, wiggle the steering wheel, trying different things, and after 50 or so attempts to start the car, I pop the hood to look at the battery. It looks fine, no corrosion, and the connections are tight.
I use my Scangauge OBD II reader to read the voltage, and it reads 12.0 volts, which means the actual voltage was 12.15-12.25 volts, which is more than enough to at least crank the engine. But it wasn’t doing anything. Normally when you try to start the car, the check engine, battery, airbag, cold engine lights, etc, all come on and go away once the engine is started. However, none of those lights came on. After about 15 minutes of trying to start the car, I call Subaru roadside assistance.
After nearly 15 minutes of talking to them and almost getting a tow truck sent my way, all of the sudden the warning lights magically come on like they’re supposed to, and the gauges do their little sweep, and I hear the seat belt chine go off. I left the key in the run position the whole time while on the phone with Subaru roadside assistance, and when all the lights came on, the turned the key to start the car, and voila it started right up.
FORTUNATELY this happened on a day where I was off work and being delayed 30 minutes was a mere inconvenience rather than a potential getting into trouble at work for being late. I’m not sure what happened, but I very much doubt it was the battery or the cold, because the car started the first time. It was not a matter of there not being enough battery power to start the car, because the battery had plenty of juice to start, and it started after a mysterious delay, and the temperature had only risen about 1 degree during the course of this happening, so it couldn’t been the cold. This seems like an electrical glitch in the ignition system to me. If it happens again, I will be doing video documentation, and updating the complaint.
- Braydon P., Fort Richardson, AK, US