Last time I started my Ka (a few days ago), it seemed to do something funny. It didn't start first time. When I started it again, in place of the odometer reading of 35,000 odd miles, it read 0.0. I pressed the trip/odo button, and the 35,000 came back, and I wondered about it briefly, and then forgot about it.
Today when I attempted to start it, it wouldn't start. Completely dead. Any thoughts on what the possible causes might be?
And in particular, is it, or is it not, simply likely to be a flat (or dead) battery?
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Cam shaft sensor at a guess. Not expensive...
:-)
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begin with the basics.Looks like the battery is exhausted.That's why the trip meter has gone to zero.hth
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Update:
Car is started with jump leads. Battery suspected of having reached end of life. Tyro sets off to take car on a run to charge it. Ignition warning light remains on, car has highly unusual and unpleasant smell, and makes a funny whining noise when running.
Tyro consults handbook which says "If ignition warning light remains on, drive straight to nearest dealer." Tyro drives car a couple of miles up the road to chap who has a garage (there being no Ford dealer within 80 miles), and leaves it there to be inspected by said chap, and then starts walking home along quiet Highland road in the rain. Nice lady passes by in her pick-up, and insists on taking damp Ka driver home, even though it means going about 3 miles out of her way.
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insists on taking damp Ka
>> driver home, even though it means going about 3 miles out of her way.
>>
Blimey, i'd edit that a bit sharpish Tyro before Mrs T finds it...is there more to tell, if so we're all ears.
:-)
Pick up drivers are nice people, so i'm told.
Has the alternator seized or decided to have a wobbly i wonder.
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Battery goosed, alternator overloaded on re-charge, now both are shot. Be an expensive afternoon no doubt! Hope it's easier to get out than the alternator on my Xantia HDi was....
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Oh dear. Still, I'm sure it could be worse.
So you reckon that starting using jump leads was not done properly, and as a result the alternator suffered damage?
before Mrs T finds it
She doesn't read this, but she's already had the full story.
"is there more to tell, if so we're all ears."
The conversation was mostly about my Ka, the weather, the fact that I'm full of the cold, and about how she and her husband have managed to succeed in selling their house.
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headlight out is easier way if not the only way
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Update:
Well, it's back from the garage. My local diagnosed the alternator as the problem, and has replaced it. He had never done a Ka alternator before. He simply couldn't believe what an awkward and difficult job it was. In fact, he said that he wondered if it was going to defeat him. (I should have passed on Bellboy's advice.) By the way, he reckons that the battery itself is probably fine.
I might add that when I set out to walk to the garage this morning in the delightful Highland drizzle (I see that England is bathed in sunshine at the moment) to pick up the car, a nice gent in a Vauxhall Vectra stopped to give me a lift. I told him where I was going, and asked where he was going. He told me he was heading home. I was puzzled and pointed out that this was not the way to his house. He replied that he had seen me walking and decided to give me a lift, even though he knew it would probably be 3 or 4 miles out of his way. Public transport up here may be almost non-existent, but the the public spiritedness of the locals is pretty impressive.
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Where you never told don't take lifts from strangers :p? Glad you got it sorted though.
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My good neighbours are hardly strangers to me.
In fact, these nice people, good-hearted though they are, would have been pretty unlikely to have stopped to offer me a lift when I was going the opposite direction if they didn't know who I was!
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>> I might add that when I set out to walk to the garage this morning
>> in the delightful Highland drizzle (I see that England is bathed in sunshine at the
>> moment)
Yes truly truly glorious blue skies, but the bright sun shining off the pavements of gold is a little distracting.
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that will be the reflection off your gold rimmed (plated) monocle
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Ford KA, KA2, KA3 - 03 1.3 Car not starting - Runfer D'Hills
