T Sport Won't Start!

[z-tune-z2]

Hey people, haven't had the car all that long and I've a problem... As described in the title!

I started a thread a while ago about leaving my car because I have university. I've had my parents start it once a week and move it up and down the drive to make sure there was less of a chance of developing flat spots.

Now it has decided to stop starting, my dad says it's definitely the Battery gone as it's only ever turned on for a bit and our Polo used to do this, so he's pretty certain. They established it's got fuel in, gauge reads it with a few bars. So it should just need to be jumped.

However my friend says if the Battery is dead, the starter won't go, it won't make any sounds, but my family say it is making sounds.

Any idea who is right? Or if its possible that there's a whole new problem??

[reece]

Just starting it and moving it up and down the drive will do more harm than good. Keep in mind that the T Sport has an alarm which will eventually drain the Battery if the car isn’t given a good run. Sounds like just a dead Battery.

[Raeman]

If it's been run for a short time say once a week, it's likely that the oil plug syndrome has reared it's nasty head! :(

My car did this and there are some more threads on this subject. Basically you take the spark plugs out,clean them, warm them up and put them back in.

Or it could just be a low Battery as suggested.

If the car is started once a week or so, then i would tell the parents to leave it running for at least 10-20 mins. Get the thing up to temp, maybe untill the fan cuts in.

Good luck. ;)

[z-tune-z2]

****... I wasn't aware that there could be such problems. My parents have decided to play it safe and give the AA a call so they can sort it out/ diagnose the problems... If it's the spark plug issue, I'll have to sort it out myself. Or try... How would I go about warming them up? To what temperature? Leaving them out in the sun we've been having good enough?? :P

[Raeman]

Leaving them out in the sun??

No seriously, i got the AA bloke out when mine did this. He told me it's a common problem on Micra's (the older ones) and occasionally on the Yaris.

When the car has been left stood, say all night and then started and driven for a short time, the spark plugs get all oily on the electrode and then when you try to restart it, it sits there spinning over but just won't fire up.

If your Battery is in good nick, you can keep it spinning over a while and bury the throttle in the carpet, eventually it will cough and splutter into life (big cloud of smoke from the back) and then once it's running it's ok.

As for warming the plugs up, the AA guy told me to put them in the oven for 10mins. :o

Alas in my case, Mrs Raeman didn't want oily plugs in her nice clean oven so the old !Removed! lighter did the trick!

Just enough to warm the electrode's up. However, if the plugs are really dirty anyway, just replace them all with new.....like i did. ;)

[Vitz_man]

You can test the Battery by switching the headlights on before starting the engine and then attempting to start it. If they go super dim while you are trying to start it, then the battery's knackered.