Help! Car wont start.

[NewbridgeJob 0]

Right, was in the middle of installing a new CD player in the Rado, the CD player worked fine so i turned the ignition off and then put the CD player inside. Then the CD for some reason wouldnt work and had no power at all..

 

Since then the car will not start at all.. It turns over strongly but just will not fire up

 

Can anyone help? Maybe i've blown some sort of fuse or something

 

Thanks in advance

[eugopnosaj 0]

Possibly an immobiliser issue, what age is the car?

[NewbridgeJob 0]

Its a 1993 mate.

 

Is there anyway of disconnecting the immobiliser to just check if thats the fault?

[Fanjita 1]

Hi buddy,

 

I did a similar thing in a friends car, I realised in wiring up the stereo I had at some point shorted out the constant 12v on the metal surround. First things first, have you been chopping the stereo wires up?

 

If so you will most likely have fried your ignition switch, not too pricey from a dealers I believe. I'm not too sure how you could actually check this but I'm thinking the not starting is a good sign, as this will have fried the position just before the starter?

 

If anyone thinks I might be wrong please do say :) I'm not entirely sure myself :lol:

[Fanjita 1]

Just looking at your description (no power to stereo ) it is suggesting the ignition switch was frazzled. Not sure if you did accidentally short the 12v constant, although a faulty stereo could do that too no doubt.

[NewbridgeJob 0]

Thats exactly what happened mate. i thought something may had gone.

 

You can get ignition switches for quite cheap

 

Any idea on where the switch is actually located? From what i can see of these switches on ebay it looks like a simple clip in sort of thing

 

Cheers!

[Fanjita 1]

Well I hate to be the one to say it, but some can be absolute sods :bad-words: to get in...

 

That being said I've done 3 now and only one was convincing me to burn the car in frustration. The switch comes into contact with the very end of your key in the barrel, so it sits right behind it. Just get the trim off, 3 screws I believe, and you can't miss it, white jobber with a large connector going into it.

[Fanjita 1]

It might help if i stated why its a sod :lol:

 

The switch is held in by a solitary screw, the said screw sits on the inside of the switch between it and the steering column. With your back in the drivers footwell and looking up, you can coax a tiny watchmakers screwdriver in there, but if it's done up too tight, you probably wont have enough leverage . Like I said though, 2 out of the 3 I've done have been fine, so heres to hoping.

[NewbridgeJob 0]

Yeah mate i've heard! Just been reading on another thread about it. Seen some pictures and i don't know which bright spark decided to have that screw on that angle.

 

I assume that it's most likely the ignition switch even though the starter motor is going?

 

Thanks mate really appreciate it

[Fanjita 1]

It sounds like it mate, I can't quite remember the symptoms when it happened to me though. Makes sense that the Ignition position before the starter position was fried though, as I think that's where the constant 12v comes from. So basically what's happening now is the feed to the starter motor is fine, but all the ignition and fuelling is not active due to the lack of supply from the ignition position.

 

Once again I'm no expert so if someone thinks I may be wrong please speak up.

[RDH 0]

Just changed my ignition switch- had no power to stereo and intermittent starting problems, don't waste your time trying to undo the screw to get the switch out, (read the threads on here), I spent 2 hours and knackered several screwdrivers trying to get mine out, in the end I pulled the end off the old switch with a pair of pliers- this gives easy access to the b*****d screw!.

 

Incidently I could get the stereo to work if I "wiggled" the key in the ignition, you could try this , if it works it is likely the switch is the problem (no harm in changing it though)

 

Rich.

[NewbridgeJob 0]

Just an update as to what happened

 

Changed the ignition switch and it fired up first time

 

So it appears that when messing with my CD player i'd actually completely fried the ignition switch as the other poster suspected.

 

The screw to the switch is near enough impossible to get to so i just took the steering wheel off, and both the top and the bottom section of the casing and just loosened a few of the bolts that secure the indicators etc to the column. This made it really really easy to get to and the switch screw is easy to get to.

 

Took me about 20 mins in total

 

Cheers everyone who helped