Replaced all of my ignition coils. Now the car won’t start and I get rapid clicking when trying to start.

[Shel_B]

What bugs me is before I started working on the car, it was starting just fine and also prior to attempting to start the first time, all the interior and dash lights were bright and after the first two start attempts, turned dark. I guess it could have been low.

Batteries can become a problem almost instantaneously. A couple of years ago, I brought the Camry in for it's annual underbody checkup, and when I picked up the car Lyle, the tech, told me he had to jump-start the car. Up until that moment, there was no observable issue with the battery. Since the battery was more than eleven years old at the time, I left the shop and drove directly to another shop where a new battery was immediately purchased and installed.

 

[someonesomewhere]

Batteries can become a problem almost instantaneously. A couple of years ago, I brought the Camry in for it's annual underbody checkup, and when I picked up the car Lyle, the tech, told me he had to jump-start the car. Up until that moment, there was no observable issue with the battery. Since the battery was more than eleven years old at the time, I left the shop and drove directly to another shop where a new battery was immediately purchased and installed.

Yeah, batteries can be funny. Sometimes they'll gradually fail, getting weaker and weaker over 6mos to a year. Sometimes they fail seemingly instantly.

The way you addressed the one mentioned in your story is the correct way, imo, if you can afford it. Just replace it and be done with it. There's almost nothing more annoying than a vehicle you can't rely on to start without intervention.

 

[Number_35]

When that happened we'd push the car or roll it down hill with the trans in second, ignition on and pop the clutch. It'd start right up. Guess you can't do that anymore, too much tech.

A friend used to park an ancient (1960ish) Brit car (Vauxhall, IIRC) facing downhill on a slope at the college, and start it that way.

Shocking, I know, that an old English car would exhibit electrical issues.

 

[ecotourist]

A friend used to park an ancient (1960ish) Brit car (Vauxhall, IIRC) facing downhill on a slope at the college, and start it that way.

Shocking, I know, that an old English car would exhibit electrical issues.

We have a 46" wide panoramic photo of the Rancher's Round-Up and Barbecue taken at the 08 Ranch, Neutral Hills Alberta July 1 and 2, 1918. Besides the 60 - 70 men and women on horseback, there is a whole swath of cars parked on a large hill and pointing downhill.

I think I know how these motorists intend to start their cars at the end of the event. A downhill run or a push start was often used back in the 'olden days' when people had manual transmissions. There were electric starters from about 1911/12 though they were probably not too common in 1918.

Come to think of it, it's remarkable that all those ranchers and fans were attending a rodeo in 1918 with their cars.

 

[mk378]

cars parked on a large hill and pointing downhill.

The Model T had to be backed up hills because it had no fuel pump and depended on gravity to move gas out of the tank. If the fuel tank became lower than the carburetor, the engine would starve for gas and stall. That was especially troublesome to the fool who goes uphill forward because the service brake only engages when rolling forward. It could not stop the car from moving backward. Thus to allow a controlled descent, you always wanted to be facing downhill.

 

[GMBoy]

Worked on my old Harley Sportster too!

That comment brought back memories of my doing exactly that on my '84 Ironhead Sportster XLH1000 with the good old 4 speed trans

 

[Newhart111]

Any update yet? Did you jump it and try again? 4 hours since your last post, just curious!

Thank you for the responses. Turned out to be a dead battery. I think it read about 11.9V on the multimeter (or was it 10.9v? I forgot which).

What threw me off is my battery died before but it never made those rapid loud click sounds when trying to start.

My friend came over with one of those handheld battery jump starters.

Car is purring again. Very smooth idle, though now I’m getting some rattling/knocking driving up the hill. I’m hoping I got some bad gasoline.

After driving around couple hours I still have 12.6v after a few hours of being parked.

Thank you for all the responses.

 

[Newhart111]

The clicking noise is probably the starter solenoid. When the battery is too run down to even fully engage the starter, the solenoid will make a rapid clicking noise. This does not mean the starter solenoid is bad, by the way.

Sounds about right.

 

[Newhart111]

sudden battery failures with no warning signs have happened to me on many an occasion. As in, car started fine, I got to my destination and parked, returned to the car 2 hours later, and the (3.5 yr old) battery was hardly able to turn the engine over. New battery, everything is normal again. The last time it happened was I left after work, car started fine, went to a gas station, turned off the ignition, filled up with gas, cranked the engine, and all I got was a starter click. Fortunately there was a store selling batteries just across the street, got the replacement installed, and everything is back to normal again. No, it wasn't corroded cables or connector nor alternator; replacement batteries lasted 3-4 years.

I took a few weeks off of work recently and didn’t drive too much. I also do a lot of city driving.

After this problem, I read/discovered about battery sulfation and that these things can cause it due to the battery not being fully charged.

I removed the caps to check the water levels of the cells. I looked in there with a flashlight and sure enough, you can see some off white crystals around the plates. It isn’t as bad as some other pictures I’ve seen but maybe that has something to do with it.

 

[ripcord]

Getting the battery charged up fully with a plug in type battery charger is a good idea in your case as it takes at least a good 6 to 8 hours to get a car battery fully charged. The last 20% of charging takes as long or longer to finish as the first 80% due to car battery chemistry.

 

[Trav]

Worked on my old Harley Sportster too!

I had a 61 XLCH 900 with a magneto and S&S super with no pump, parking on hills was a sure fire way of getting it going cold.