Every tow operator offering emergency roadside assistance knows the feeling of being called out to what is seemingly an easy jump start job only to face failure. Despite having a solid battery jump box and following standard procedures, the car still won’t start.
The vehicle can still be towed back to a service garage, where the problem can be diagnosed and fixed. But that doesn’t help his reputation for providing emergency roadside assistance. But what can a tow operator do? If a stranded customer insists that all he needs is a jump start, you take your jump box and go. Sometimes things work out. Other times they don’t.
A Bad Starter Motor
If you are an auto mechanic, you know that a battery jump box only provides the electricity needed to turn the starter motor. It cannot do anything else. So, what’s the deal when jump starting fails? There could be any number of problems to consider. At the top of the list is a bad starter motor.
A starter motor needs to properly engage to successfully crank an engine. This is true even with a fully charged battery. So, if the starter motor is worn out or defective, it is a no-go. Along those same lines is a faulty starter solenoid. It might interrupt the electrical signal needed to crank the engine.
Faults With the Ignition System
Another source of starting system issues is the car’s ignition system. An ignition system has plenty of moving parts, so to speak, including the ignition switch, coil, and spark plugs. A fault with any of these parts could limit the amount of energy available for starting.
For example, a bad coil could reduce the amount of spark produced by the plugs. Limited spark can prevent combustion. In this case, you could crank all day and not get the car to start.
Fuel System Problems
Sometimes, jump starting failures have nothing to do with a car’s electrical components. Sometimes, it is a problem with the fuel system. A mechanic could be looking at a bad fuel pump that simply will not provide enough fuel to get things started.
Additional fuel system problems include clogged fuel filters and faulty fuel injectors. Modern vehicles have very sensitive fuel systems. So, even a minor fault can prevent starting.
Don’t Forget All of Those Sensors
The bane of every modern mechanic’s existence are the hundreds of computerized sensors today’s cars rely so heavily on. You have the crankshaft position sensor, the airflow sensor, the camshaft sensor, and so forth. A full host of sensors is needed to agree that everything is in order before a car will start. If just one sensor decides it doesn’t want to play nicely, the rest of the group doesn’t get to play.
Even the best battery jump box in the world cannot get around fussy sensors that refuse to cooperate. If it is a sensor problem, the customer is looking at a tow along with a potentially expensive repair. In many cases, the actual price of the sensor is higher than the cost of the labor to replace it.
Good Luck Out There
Here’s hoping your battery jump starting event failures are few in number. Here is hoping you have good results out there. Whenever you answer a call for emergency service, it is a crapshoot. You might end up getting the car started or find yourself recommending it be towed back to the garage.
Our part is to supply you with the equipment you need to meet the challenges of dead or extremely low vehicle batteries. So, in addition to battery jump boxes, at Clore Automotive, we carry battery testers, battery maintainers, battery chargers and much more.
