Why Won’t My Car Start? 

The engine doesn’t crank at all 

If your car’s engine refuses to crank when you turn the ignition key, you might potentially have a dead battery on your hands. Coincidentally, a dead battery is the most common reason why your car doesn’t want to start. 

If you have a battery tester, the first thing you’ll want to do is to check the battery and see if it’s weak. If you don’t have a battery tester or you desperately need to get somewhere, you can try jump-starting your car using jumper cables. Note that if you successfully start your car you’ll need to leave it running for several minutes to allow the alternator an ample amount of time to recharge the battery. The best thing you can do though is to use a battery charger to top it up, and the old saying, “low and slow” applies here. 

Sometimes, something as simple as battery corrosion can prevent you from starting the engine. If you haven’t replaced your battery in a very long time, the terminals might be corroded and unable of providing a clean connection. Simply cleaning the terminals can do the trick in this instance. 

If none of this works, you’ll need a new battery that’s able to hold a charge and provide enough electrical energy to start the engine. 

If you notice a clicking sound when attempting to start the engine but the engine itself doesn’t turn or crank over, you’ve probably got a bad starter. It’s the starter motor’s job to physically turn the engine over and help the engine burst to life. Starter motors have a pretty long service life, but sometimes they can fail in as little as 30,000 miles. A new starter motor will fix this issue. 

The ignition coil is responsible for transforming the battery’s voltage into an electric spark that the engine uses to ignite the fuel/air mixture. A bad ignition coil is recognizable if your car won’t start but all of the lights work normally. This indicates that the battery is operational and is able to hold a charge, so there’s probably an issue somewhere else, possibly with the ignition coil itself. 

The engine cranks but it doesn’t start 

A clogged fuel filter is a common reason why your car doesn’t start, assuming the battery isn’t dead. Generally speaking, fuel filters need to be replaced once every two years or once every 30,000 miles. Failure to do so might cause a clogged-up fuel filter that is unable to let enough fuel flow through to the engine. Simply replacing the fuel filter might solve these fueling issues. 

Another reason why your car doesn’t want to start could be because of a failed fuel pump, though this is relatively rare. A damaged pump will usually need to be replaced by a professional and is significantly more expensive than simply replacing the fuel filter. 

Last but not least, as rare as it is, you might have a bad timing belt on your hands. As its name would imply, the timing belt opens and closes the valves, ensuring they never touch the pistons and cause catastrophic engine damage. The timing belt needs to be replaced in regular intervals, before it can snap and blow up the engine. This is usually once every 60,000 to 100,000 miles. 

Other reasons why your car won’t start 

As silly as it sounds, you want to check the fuel level in your fuel tank and make sure that it isn’t empty. Most of us have probably been there at one point or another, so there’s nothing to be ashamed of. Forgetting to put enough fuel in your car is something most of us will do at least once in our lifetime, so just make sure your fuel tank isn’t empty if your car refuses to start. The silver lining in all of this is that there’s nothing wrong with your car mechanically and it won’t cost you anything to fix. Simply fill up your fuel tank and be on your way. 

AdBlue is a diesel exhaust fluid that most modern diesel engines used to reduce harmful gases from being released into the atmosphere. Much like fuel, your car uses AdBlue the more you drive it and you’ll eventually need to top it up. Unfortunately, some modern cars will refuse to start at all if there isn’t enough AdBlue in the tank. In this case, filling up the tank with enough AdBlue will allow you to start the engine. 

Quite often, the reason why your car doesn’t want to start is something as simple as a dead battery or a clogged-up fuel filter. Fixing these will be relatively inexpensive and quick. If you need to replace a fuel pump or a timing belt on the other hand, you’re probably going to spend a bit more money to get your car in working order. 

Whatever you need to fix your car, whether that’s a fuel filter, a fuel pump, or even an ignition coil, you can find it at AutoZone. You can even sort by year, make, model, and engine size, to ensure correct fitment for your specific vehicle. 

If the job is too big for you, seek out one of our Preferred Shops to help you do the job.