Have you ever had your car just “dead” on you, try to start it and it just won’t start? You end up calling a tow truck and paying those big towing bills, then to make matters worse the shop technician tells you it will cost hundreds of dollars to get it working again, right? Maybe, maybe not.
I own and work as a Diagnostic Technician here at Ace Automotive in Lakewood Wa and I can tell you from experience that if a few people knew a little more about how their cars operate, they could save a lot of money. Say, for example, you’re driving at night with the windshield wipers and heater, lights, and radio on. You notice that the headlights get dimmer and dimmer, soon the vehicle “shuts down” and now it won’t start. battery because if the battery were to fail, the alternator would still hold power to the vehicle until I turned it off, then it would not restart.
You are driving for a while and the car just “stalls”. All the instrument lights come on, but when you try to start it, it just turns, but it won’t start. First, it depends on what kind of car happened to you if it was an import such as Honda, acura, toyota, subaru, nissan, mitubishi, the engine timing belt may have broken (if more than 60,000 have passed miles since you last changed it)) you should be able to tell if when you try to start the engine it sounds different as if it just “free spins” faster than normal, this is bad because most of the imported cars mentioned will cause costly engine damage when the timing belt breaks. .
If your vehicle is a domestic chevy ford etc please be patient, wait a bit, maybe 30-45 minutes and try to start it if it starts hooray! But it will “die” again once it is warm enough again, be sure to tell your local technician this valuable information and request all the parts they replace to repair your vehicle to let them know that you know something about the car too.
