I boosted my wife's car yesterday. Today backed out of garage to wash it, and car could not start. Does not even want to crank. Turn the key and nothing.
Tried to boost it (connected other car to the terminals under hood), does not try to crank over.
Did not seem to have any codes in durametric (some level errors, etc, typical stuff when you play with fuses, batt disconnect, etc).


If someone can give me a way to start troubleshoot this, will greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

 

Been reading a lot and starting to think it could be the crankshaft position sensor. I pulled codes but nothing was visible for the sensor at all. Can it be the sensor without having a code? The car was intermittently having issues starting (crank over but no start, or no crank at all until key removed, put back in and tried again).
Anyways, I have no parts here and it would be a day for them to come in, so decided to tow to shop to look at. Pissed that I could not do this fix.

 

Have an update on my situation.

Ended up towing the car to shop. They analyzed it and came back with failed starter.
I asked about whether the crankshaft position sensor and they said the starter was not even working (which I can believe as I was not able to hear the operation either).
Steering column? No. The solenoids in it were working just fine and the ignition key was turning systems on/off without issues.

So got the car to the shop just before 8am (Luxury Auto Works - N. Lamar, Austin, TX), they got it fixed, ready at 5:30p same day. Got it back, washed and vacuumed. Ready to roll.
Started, and the car was on almost instantly - which I was actually kind of surprised.
Only drawback? $1300 total cost.

 

Would the boosting of wife car be a possible culprit for starter failing? I know it was old one, but just wondering if that could have helped it over the edge.

 

No it would not.

 

Cool. So it was just fn dead. Good to know. Thank you for input.

 

You even mentioned previously that the car's starting was having issues so those were probably the initial signs that the starter was going..

 

Yes, I am sure that is what was going on now. Guess just touching bases to keep an eye on the shop, see if they will be worthy of my returning there again. The thing is that I had my coolant pipes replaced there, and while it was all apart, I asked about the starter. They said looks dry and ok. I agreed. Since was working decent and I had no codes at all related to this, it was all put back together. A month later, back in shop in same area replacing starter. Well, thats how life goes sometimes.

Question:
- Is $1325 otd, a decent price for this job? Trying to compare with others.
- Now that starter replaced, does that affect other things in the electrical system? Heard that sometimes it may affect battery or other parts after brand new starter put in. Trying to understand this.

Thank you.

 

How much of that cost was parts and how much was labor? I don't think the starter should be more than $200-$300. I know saying this now doesn't help at all but for that little bit more when everything was already apart doing the water pipes, I would have told them to put the starter in.


$1300 sounds a bit steep but it is also quite a bit to take apart and put back together. I can almost guarantee it would have been at least twice that at the dealer though if that makes you feel any better. Probably not huh?


At least it's up and running without too much hassle. As for the battery, if it's old and the starter was going out you might want to think about replacing it sooner rather than later.

 

The starter was OEM. Got charged 600 for it. Rest was labor.
I asked about putting starter in with pipes. They do jobs per book, so charge from manual how much each job is. At tbat time told me would be extra 800 tonut in with pipes. Then tested it, was dry so recommended leave in. I decided so. Well, thats life.