car question
 

ok, those of you who know lots about cars....my car will not start. it is a 2003 neon with only 15,000 miles on it, and i've never had trouble with it before. I'm thinking it has something to do with the fact that it's really cold here, but i can't figure out specifics. does anyone have any advice for me? i want my car back :(

Re: car question
 

Does the engine turn over?
Or does nothing happen at all?

the first few times the engine turned over, but stalled. eventually it just stopped turning over. :(

Could be your battery. Batteries don't always work in extreme cold weather. They freeze up. Just go down to Autozone and they'll help you out.

I don't know what the products are called. We don't have this problem in Oklahoma :D

thanks ktsnake...we're going to try to jump it right now...

If your car has gas (more than a quarter of a tank) it might be the fuel pump. The same thing happened to my car (2001) a few weeks ago. If you don't have that much gas your tank might be frozen.

well, it wouldn't start when we jumped it, so apparently it isn't the battery :mad:

Probably true, but not necessarily. Another problem can be bad connections between the battery posts and the battery cables. Also, it may depend on who tried to jump it for you. Sometimes the cheaper jumper cable you buy just don't do the job.

Do you have AAA? If so, ask them to jump it.

The Gas tank if also a possibility. There are gasoline aditives that will sometimes help. Most gas stations have them, as well as places like Target, etc.

Good advice offered above. In cold weather, always try to keep at least 1/2 of a tank of gas in the car.

Good luck.

Dang i don't feel bad now ....i bought a 2003 hyundai sonata xl in august and was upset i have only 7000 miles on it and you have a 2003 and have 15,000

I bet it's the battery. (I'm drawing on my very, very limited Car Experience here. ;)) Once when my old Grand Am wouldn't start, though, it turned out to be the alternator...just go get it checked out. They'll find what's wrong with it.

It is either the battery but it might also be the alternator.

Either the battery is shot and will no longer hold a charge so it may need to be replaced but if the care is a 2003 i'd look into the alternator.

Neons have a problem with that...

I would say that your first problem is that you have an American car, but I'd be a smartass if I said that, wouldn't I? ;)

When I've had alternator problems in the past, a jump would start the car and it would run fine, but it wouldn't start again after that. I don't really have any other suggestions, but I hope you get it figured out soon and it doesn't cost tons of $$$ to repair. :)

In my old car I had that problem last winter. My battery was just fine...it ended up being the alternator. My dad installed a new one and I was fine.

I would almost bet that it's the alternator!

I'm willing to bet that since your car is "stalling" it is not the batter, and it is not the altenator.

The easiest thing, and this is something EVERYONE should do to all cars that spend most of their time outside at night (when it gets the coldest) is use the gasoline additives that DeltAlum mentioned. This is going to offer you even more protection than keeping your gas tank more than half full (I speak from experience having had a three-quarters ful tank not supply enough gas one time). The additive I use is called HEET, it only costs $1.09, and everytime I fill my tank I put a bottle in.

This will be the cheapest thing you can do to prevent winter starting problems.

I used HEET all winter in Alaska, my car started every time (though we also plus ours in). However another tip is to only fuel your car at night, helps to prevent water in the gas line, and always keep it above half a tank.

If you only have 15,000 miles on a 2003, it should still be under warranty, call the dealership.