After a 4-day vacation I tried to start my car to get to work, but when I turned the key, nothing happened. All things electrical weren't working so I tried to get a jump start from a friend, thinking it is a battery issue. Once connected, my car had power enough to crank the engine but it still wouldn't start up. I tried jumping it with a portable booster pack too but that didn't help either. I also tried tapping the starter with a hammer (a trick my co-worker told me might work).

The battery is fairly new (about 9 months old) and all the connections seem fine. I did notice however that even with the portable booster attached, I still couldn't get enough power to roll down the windows at all. Could it be a dead battery? Blown fuse? Something worse?

I'm not much or a mechanic so any help/thoughts would be much appreciated!

P.S. its a '98 4cl Camry with about 120k miles on it.

 

the thing with new batteries, many times they are not fully charged. and one never knows how long they sat on the shelf. over time, a battery sitting on a shelf will lose a little bit of a charge. its up to the store or garage to put the battery on a charger and bring it up to 12.5 to 14 volts (full charge). now, believe it or not, an alternator would have to work very hard to bring that battery to a full charge. and many times, it will not do it.

just because its only 9 months old, doesn't mean it was fully charged.]

now, what is/was the weather like where the car is parked over you vacation days..?? its a known fact that hot weather kills a battery faster than the cold.......!!!!! so, if you had extreme heat, and humidity, that battery sitting there with what ever else is drawing from it, clock, computer, etc, drained it down to nearly zero volts. you need to remove the battery, take it to the place you bought it from, and get another one. you will be charged a "pro-rated" fee, but it will be less than the cost of a new battery. also, if i were you, you might want to think about "upgrading" to a higher cold cranking amps battery. do not cheap out. and by all means, but a name brand battery, like interstate, sears die hard, toyota, exide (AAA sells these under the AAA brand). then re-install the new battery and then have your charging system checked, but i suspect that's ok. make sure you ask the place where you get the battery. to CHECK THE VOLTAGE........!!!!!!!! you want to see, 12.5 to 14 volts.........!!

 

Thanks for the response! From what my roommates tell me, the weather was pretty hot (temps in the upper 90s; car was parked in direct sun) so I'm hoping you're right and it is just a dead battery. If it is just a battery issue though, shouldn't another car be able to jump mine?

 

not necessarily, because if your battery is dead, completely dead, you would have needed a complete circuit to get the electrons to flow. once the jumper was removed, the car will jsut die again.

 

So I replaced my old battery with a new one (old one was in fact completely dead) but my car still won't start! It has more power, but the power windows, door locks, and radio still don't function. I'm about to just bite the bullet and call a tow truck, but I don't have much money so that still the last resort. Any suggestions on what it might be? Could a blown fuse cause this?

 

Oh and I found a sound effect that sounds similar to my car as I try to start it. http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/sound...otor_wav.shtml

 

Also, is there a way to shift the car into neutral if it won't start? I'm having my car towed in by a friend but we need to get it into neutral first and I can't seem to do that unless the engine is running...any way to get around this?

 

there is normally a little slot beside the shifter you can fit a small screw driver in..push in and u should be able to shift.

 

Same thing happen to me .Does your car have alarm? what happen with mine was that, some how, the alarm was killing the relay starter preventing the car to starting. As soon I unplug it BINGO
Try that and let me know
GOOD LUCK