Car starting trouble. Clio
 

Battery seems ok as all lights and everything come on but girlfriends car won't start. It sort of turns over in 'pulses' or short bursts instead of continuously and then firing up, so it can't fire up.

Dodgy battery connection? Will try cleaning and regressing but seems to rhythmic to be a faulty connection

Re: Car starting trouble. Clio
 

No expert but 'seems ok?' you need to test it #or just charge it, takes a lot of current to turn over a car engine :-)

Re: Car starting trouble. Clio
 

Now is the open season for batteries, they become terminally (sic) ill over the summer but die now. It is the most likely culprit unless there's something else obvious wrong.

How old is the battery?

To be sure, put a known good charged battery on it and try a start (even if temporarily purely for the exercise, no need to bolt it in situ).

If it starts fine then you know for sure it's the battery. Unfortunatley they don't "heal", only solution is euthanasia and replace.

Older cars often exhibited all sorts of odd behaviour when the battery was getting poorly, start and stall was a common thing (voltage compensation for afterstart wasn't very clever sometimes). New battery cured it often as not.

Re: Car starting trouble. Clio
 

CLIO= French, Possibly on strike or protesting like the rest of the nation;)

Re: Car starting trouble. Clio
 

Thought it could just be on strike. It does that a lot.

Tried jumping it today with my car but it just turns over and then after a couple of seconds will give off a 'click' and stop trying?? So still not firing up. Makes me think the battery isn't helping but it's definitely something else too.

Re: Car starting trouble. Clio
 

Have you fired a squirt of WD40 near the air filter , it can suck it in and fire something up that appears dead . I got a Triumph started that way , it chugged and chugged and chugged with no chance of a spark , clouded it a bit near the air filter and it whoofed into life on 3rd attempt . See if it fires , turn it off and then see if it will spark up on it`s own . Do you have a Multimeter at all or access to one ?

Re: Car starting trouble. Clio
 

Check the spark plugs... Take one out at a time and hold it close to the bodywork, if it sparks then its fine, find one that doesnt spark to the body and there is your problem...

Re: Car starting trouble. Clio
 

My old landrover did something like this and it was the starter motor that had gone. However, it could have easily been the solenoid, earth conections or battery so test these, starting with the battery. Get a meter on it while it's turning the engine and see what the draw is. Even a small drop from normal can cause starting issues.

Re: Car starting trouble. Clio
 

But I've tried jumping it with a good donor so it would have worked if the battery is cocked.

Haven't got time for spannering a Clio, it's just not interesting. Will get it recovered to garage, that's what breakdown cover is for I guess. Used it 4 times already this year!!

Re: Car starting trouble. Clio
 

you need to get it cranking properly before worrying about spark