Well, I learned something from a tow-truck guy.

[vixengrl]

Now, two months ago, I got a new battery because my car would not start one morning. My husband had tried to start it, couldn't do it, roused me out of bed (he got up early that morning and had to move my car so he could get out) I eventually got it started after a couple of tries, and he insisted I take it into the shop. They tested the battery at the auto shop, and said my battery was "low".

Okay, I figured, a battery. I can handle that.

Imagine my anxiety then this afternoon when my dad goes to move my car out of his driveway to the curb so someone else can park there, and it's the same thing--it won't turn over. He comes in the house to get me out so we can figure out what the problem is. I turn the key myself--it's dead. The dashboard lights come on, but no sweet motor-music from the engine. We pop the hood, and he gets out his jump kit--nothing. Not a click from the starter. Nothin'.

"Do you still have triple-A?" Dad asks.

"Yeah, I guess I'll call them," says I. So I get out my card and the phone and they say they'll have somebody out in about forty minutes.

And it really did take forty minutes or so for someone to come out--I don't know if they have a full staff on Saturdays and maybe they have more calls for assistance on weekends. In the meantime, my dad's friend had come over, and he knows a thing or two about cars (for that matter, so does my dad--they've between them owned a dozen or so cars and maintained tham and worked on them.) He'd never seen a problem like that either.

So we're standing around with a popped hood when the Battery rescue guy from AAA gets there, and he hooks up a diagnostic something-or-other (I'm not really a "technical person" when it comes to things automotive.) He tries starting it. He fiddles with the diagnostic thing.

"Your battery's good. It's probably the starter. I'm going to call you a tow--where do you want to take it?"

Well, my battery should be good--it's new! But my starter--that's a worry. What'll that set me back? I opt to take it to the dealership--I try to be a good Motor-mama and treat my vehicles right. The dealership should know what's wrong with my baby. But it's nearly 4pm on a Saturday.

As you could probably guess, the service area at the dealership was already closed. I had to call a couple of times before I got to talk to someone who said I could just bring it in, and they'd have someone see to it on Monday. I call my husband who was at work to let him know I was still at my folks' and he'd probably be home before me. He's concerned, obviously, since it sounds like I need a repair and might have to take a day off work to deal with my car. My dad helpfully offered to loan me his truck for a couple days while I get the thing tended to.

So now, I'm waiting for the tow truck. It shows, and me, my dad, and my dad's good friend are all standing around because my car is in the *driveway*. It's facing the wrong way to be taken up on the flatbed. The towtruck guy gets out with his motor running, and surveys the situation with the eyes of one who has probably muscled more than a few burnt-out beaters from snow-bound curbsides, or backed wrong-way down streets to try and manage picking up a wreck that landed inconveniently. He is one big fellow. I mean big. My dad whispered to me, as an aside, "Oh hell, we won't have to push it, he'll just pick the thing up..."

"It won't start?" he says.

"It's been tried," we allow.

"Give me the keys," he says, and I let him have them. They've seen a lot of action, that day. He pulls the driver's side seat back, makes one adjustment, and "Click, click, vroom." My car has now been started.

"What did you do?" my dad asked, voicing what we, flabbergasted, were all thinking.

"Shifter wasn't all the way up."

We were all trying to start my car when it wasn't properly in "Park."

Only the presence of my dad and his buddy, and knowing the other guy from AAA didn't catch this either, kept me from feeling like a big, dumb girl. And now I wonder if I bought myself a stupid battery two months ago because I didn't fiddle with the shifter before. We tipped him a little before he went on his way.

So, um, moral of the story is...you gotta be in "Park." And yes, I laughed at myself, but was mostly relieved.

[loveable liberal]

1. I had a similar situation.

At random, my car wouldnt start. New next door neighbor guy is an excellent mechanic. He poked around a bit, figured it wasnt the battery. He goes in his garage and gets a steel pipe about 18 inches long, peers into the engine compartment, finds the starter, gives it a tap, tap, tap, then turns the key and vroom vroom, the motor starts right up.

Starters can go bad and mine eventually did, but in older cars sometimes they stick a bit. Nothing a little tap with a steel pipe wont remedy.

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. You had armature lock

A tow-truck driver taught me about it years ago. It's very common among old Chevy V-8s, especially if they have exhaust headers, as the starter is wedged between the engine block and the left-bank header collector. It can get quite hot, and the starter's armature can expand enough to lock up. (Apparently the older Delco starters aren't very well insulated. You can get a starter shield or blanket to help prevent it.)

Since I learned about this, I've carried a section of pipe about two feet long in my truck, just in case.

[loveable liberal]

6. I drive a 1995 Jetta

I get about 85,000 miles out of a starter, but this has happened both times when I've had to replace the it. It didnt happen when the engine was cold, it usually happened after driving a short distance then turning the engine off, stopping in the store, then trying to start it again. Somehow the thing just didnt reset to its original position. (I'm guessing of course.....)

[regnaD kciN]

7. That reminds me...

Nothing a little tap with a steel pipe wont remedy.

...of a time almost twenty years ago when I drove a Mazda with a similar starter problem. I had an axe-handle at home that started it on occasion, but I had left it back at home that day, when the starter acted up as I was about to go out to lunch. Luckily, I was working for a computer game company where a lot of the guys were into D&D and fantasy stuff, and some of them had (fake) medieval weaponry for "atmosphere" in their offices. I immediately remembered that one of my friends had a battle-axe that would certainly be long enough.

However...as all this was happening, a bunch of the other guys, including the owner, were coming back from their lunch. So, what they saw was:

1) Me getting into my car and having the engine fail to start.
2) Me getting out of my car, popping the hood, and calmly going back into the office.
3) Me reemerging from the office carrying a battle-axe.

I'm sure they figured I had flipped out completely and was about to start chopping up my car. So stayed in their car, watching, as I turned the axe around and used the handle to whack something inside the engine, got back in the car, and started up the engine just fine. As a final touch, I believe I got out again, closed the hood, and handed the axe to one of them, asking them to put it back in the guy's office.

[Oeditpus Rex]

2. You didn't say what kind of car you have, but

the neutral safety switch might be a bit worn. It's a relay between the shifter and the starter that ensures a car with an automatic transmission will start only in neutral or park. On column shifters, it's probably right on the steering column, near the firewall (the wall between the interior and engine compartment). With a floor shift, it's somewhere under the console. They're inexpensive parts, but getting to them can be a hassle unless you're pretty flexible, especially with a column shift.

Mine's out of alignment and I'm too lazy to crawl under the dash to mess with it, so I just pull the shift lever more toward "park" as I turn the key.

'Tis indeed a valuable lesson, though, no? :hi:

[vixengrl]

5. It's an '04 Honda Civic.

That's the funny thing--since it's only got a hair over 40K miles on it, I just couldn't see how my starter would've gone bad. And like the tow truck guy said before ambling away--"Nothing goes wrong with them Hondas." But I did get a lesson out of it, and luckily, no trip to the shop for a new starter--because I think even the dealership might've tried selling me a repair I didn't need.

[Kali]

3. my van does that, but that is never what is realy wrong with it

had a little ford pick up with the shifter on the floor. Dealer wanted 200 bucks to fix it (similar thing, can't remember what the problem was - couldn't shift or something) I took it apart and fixed it with a piece of plastic from a ball point pen. $200? screw that

[mwooldri]

8. I learned it backwards.

Turned the car off and the key wouldn't come out. Car wasn't moving, engine was off, what was wrong?

I was still in Drive.

Mark.