Did a bit of poking around, looking up errors on the dash and such. His battery seems to be past due for replacement.
The car’s system would turn on, but the error message was talking about the anti-collision braking system being offline. Trying to start it and it would barely turn over.
Looked at the battery connectors and the positive have a chunk of corrosion on it.
He lives next door to a dealership, so should be easy to replace.
Low voltage from the battery can cause all sorts of weird, hard-to-diagnose electrical issues. Definitely a good thing to check first.
Not sure the model… but the automated systems failing in a new car is a sure sign of a flat battery. Stabilitrack for example is one system that, if nothing else fails, can be upset about a flat battery.
Also, if you’re in the US, don’t forget to price check a place like O’Reilly’s… same batteries, different stickers, less monies.
In the old days we would have used the jumper leads.
That’s exactly why I was there. I had my car and friend was supposed to have jumper leads.
Works exactly the same in newer days, except we have handy little batteries to avoid the hazards of connecting two dumb cars together.
Doesn’t help with a dead battery. Just may be able to start once. Just like old times.
Try to charge the battery before you do anything, first in a jump start, extended jump if it doesn’t take, then with a charger if you have one, on a trickle charge overnight. Barring that, take it out and bring it into walmart or the like and they will test it for you, and sell you a new one if need be.
I don’t know about collision braking systems, but cars do have a diagnostic thing that plugs into the fuse box under steering wheel usually as I’m aware, that will give you the error codes if you can find someone with them, you can buy one for a hundred or so as I’m aware, that are good for ranges of vehicles not entirely sure.
Oh yeah, for the corrosion, take off the terminals before you do anything, and clean them with emory cloth, or sandpaper, or something scratchy to get any funk off of it, both the connectors and the terminals.
I once replaced a good battery with a worse one, after it wouldn’t start, and later learned one of the terminals was somehow chronically loose, and just threading a screw in the gap to make it tight fixed it. That replaced battery couldn’t be returned as the original was gone by then, and itself failed just the year before last, only making it maybe 4 years.
Have you tried unplugging and plugging it back in again?
Yeah I kinda joke, but get the battery checked…
What model and year is it?
I had a 2009 Kia Rio that needed unplugging and plugging back in to get it to start. One of the computer chips must’ve been malfunctioning and it wouldn’t recognize the immobilizer chip in the key I think. You could try turning the key for 5 minutes and get nothing, then it would just randomly work. By disconnecting the battery for a while (I left it overnight) I could get a good few weeks out of the car before it started acting up again.
Don’t go to a dealer, fo a gods sake, they will rake you over the coals.
We don’t call them stealerships for no reason.
But it’s 100’ from his front door!
Look up how much a battery costs at your local auto parts store before you go to the dealer. That way you’ll know if your overpaying and by how much.
One hundred to 150 tops.
Regarding Battery Terminal Corrosion…