Having difficult starting a vehicle is one on the most common faults that any driver will experience in a vehicles lifespan and this will occur when you most least expect it e.g. parked at the shopping mall, or taking your family on holiday and so on. This can be the most annoying issue to have as most vehicles these days have so much electronics that it’s virtually impossible to figure out Wats going on
The Equipment
The starting circuit on modern vehicles consist of the following components
- Battery & cables
- Starter motor
- Ignition switch
- Transponder key, antenna and immobilizer ecu
- Fuses and relays
- Clutch & brake pedal position sensors
- Gear selectors switch
- Battery electronics and pyro fuses
- And so, on
It theory a key is inserted into the ignition switch, the transponder ecu send a code to the antenna, the key is read and the data is received by the antenna and transported back to ecu. Then the authorization for start is given by the ecu and the driver can now turn key to crank position. This activate the starter relay and battery voltage is delivered to the starter solenoid and the vehicle cranks. There are other scenarios where the clutch, brake depressed or gear lever must be in park to be activated. So now you might understand why there is so many variables just to get a vehicle starter.
We suggest that on every service the following test be done to test these circuitry of these systems
- Battery test (use an approved battery tester that can predict accurate lifespan)
- Starter draw test and alternator efficiency (test check operation functions)
- Cable volt drop test (checks cable resistance that can cause starting faults)
- Current draw test (to ensure battery does not discharge quickly)
- Diagnostic scan of immobilizer or anti-theft systems (operational functions)
These are some of the preventative measure that we offer our customer free of charge on every service to ensure trouble free motoring with uncompromising safety cause you never know what the future holds but you can be prepared for it