Engine Won't Start

Hello group,

I'm in a bit of a jam, my Tiburon GT 2003 will not start.

I changed the oil myself yesterday with 5w30 Mobil 1. I also replaced
the cabin air filter.

Now, the engine barely cranks and then nothing. It's not the battery
(i think) since all the lights work. The fuel tank is at 3/4 full.
I'm thinking it's the spark plugs? But it's so weird that it all
happened after the maintenance work I did yesterday.

I called AAA today, but then realized all the service stations are
closed on Sundays. So, between now and Monday, I was hoping someone
might have an idea about what's going on and that I might be able to
fix the problem.

I'm pretty new at this do-it-yourself maintenance, but I've changed my
oil before without any issues... although, I've only used 10W40
before; dunno if that made any difference. Oh, and I installed a
Fumoto engine oil drain valve with that last oil change. I thought it
would make things easier. Anyways, I'm getting off track.

Looking forward to any feedback or suggestions.

Thank you,
John

 

You may have disturbed a battery/starter cable connection
and/or the connection is corroded.

Don't rule out the battery either. I'd be tempted to swap in a
battery from another car.

Speedy Jim
http://www.nls.net/mp/volks/

 

If the lights dim or go out when the engine is being cranked, I would
suspect the battery needs a charge or replacement.

Ed

 

Considering the fact that the cabin lights and headlights were still
working, I was surprised to find out that it was in fact the battery.
The tow truck guy went ahead and tried a jump start and it fixed it.
Well, I learned =).

John

 

It takes much less current to operate anything elso on the car when
compared to the starter motor.

 

If the lights dim or go out when the engine is being cranked, I would

It was probably one dead cell in the battery. You can test for that
pretty easy with a regular voltmeter. Test the battery voltage with no
load(ie, ignition off, lights off). You should see about 13 volts on a
nearly-new battery and no less than 12.2-12.6 on a used battery. It
will drop below 12 volts while the engine is being cranked, but
anything below 8 volts is definately suspect.

It's somewhat unrelated but the original battery on my Kia did exactly
what yours did...started cranking slow. Then one morning it cranked
over and started..barely, and then it threw a check engine light at
me. As it turns out, Kia put a DTC in the ECM for 'low battery
voltage' and I hit that threshold during cranking. A new battery fixed
it right up. Had your car started with that marginal battery you
probably would have had a check engine light alerting you to the
voltage problem.

Chris

 

Actually, a fully charged, properly functioning battery should produce
14.2 volts (2.3v per cell x 6 cells).

 

You mean I've never seen a fully charged, properly functioning battery in
my 11 years of auto repair. I was taught that it was about 12.8.
Acceptable alternator regulated voltage begins as low as 13.5!

 

I was thinking the same thing. I've seen them hit 13 volts but never any higher.

Chris

 

After discharge (such as from long cranking period or lights left on),
the battery should be charged to around 14.5V (approx).
Once fully charged, it can be "maintained" at 13.5V

Wealth of battery info here:
http://www.uuhome.de/william.darden/


Speedy Jim
http://www.nls.net/mp/volks/

 

What can I say; that's the design spec. If you stick a voltmeter across
a new battery with no load on it, that's what you'll get. It will
degrade a bit with use, but I've measured 14v on batteries that have
been used for a few years, too. As you stated, there's a pretty broad
range of usable voltage, with the key being that it's at least 12v.

 

OOPS! Bad math. That should have read 13.8 volts, not 14.2. That's what
I get for doing it in my head! ;-)