Started the car last summer, no problem at all. Automatic shift a bit stiff. Drove around for a bit and parked in the garage. Tried to start two months later and no click, no fuel pump, nothing. Tried jump start with my other vehicle. Same thing. Absolutely nothing. Is there a transmission lockout that can be freed up? I did have previous experience of the car not moving when I put in drive. I had to go into a lower gear to start moving and then shift to drive. Car was beautiful but my was side swiped and had some front end damage (minor cosmetic stuff). I changed the two passenger side doors and the motor only has 70,000 miles. It had been running beautifully. Not sure where to start on this one. Any help out there?? Thanks in advance.

 

The first thing is the battery…if yours is completely dead a jump start won’t work. Time for a new and fully charged battery.

 

pppoels, you can be suffering from a few things. The first thing that I would check is the wiring under the hood. Ironically, the wiring is made with a vegetable based primary ingredient and the critters love to eat the insulation. This can lead to a bunch of wires getting shorted together and what not. As you can imagine, that would create a lot of hate and discontent.

Next, put the battery on a charger and make sure that it is at 100%. Have a multimeter with you and after pulling it off of the charger, wait about 30 minutes and then measure from the lead post of the battery to the other one and see what the voltage is. It should be at 12.6 VDC. If it is at 12.5 VDC or lower, then your battery is toast and you are going to need a new battery to get the car to start.

Now, with a good battery in the car, get into the driver's seat and leave the driver's door open. As you turn the key to the START position, what did the overhead light do? Did it remain bright, dim some, or go out completely? If it remains bright, look down at the center console. There should be a red light on next to the e-brake. If this is the case, you have a problem with your keyfob and odds are, you have lost the programming to have the car recognize the keyfob. You can try using your second keyfob (assuming you have one) and see if the car will start with that. But, odds are, if you lost one key, you lost both. If the light goes dim or off, hold the key in the start position for 15 seconds. return the key to the OFF position and then immediately go out to the battery and cup your hands OVER!!!!!!! the battery terminals. Do you feel heat coming off of one of the terminals? If yes, then you have a bad battery cable and that will need to be replaced.

That should get your car up and running.