in just wanting a car which starts when I need it to?

[JakeBullet]

Fucking useless bloody car

Sat outside a school where I have been doing a parent volunteer course (fat chance of continuing the way my car is going )

Have come out and the bloody thing will not go anywhere. No rhyme or reason, it's been looked over. Sometimes it just will not start and now is one of those times.

I have an appointment to see DS's teacher in an hour.
DS is supposed to be going to an exercise class aftwe school
I have shopping to do
I have an appointment tomorrow.

But no....my car has decided otherwise and quite frankly I am on the point of doing a Basil Fawlty on it!

Did you put fuel in it?

Will it jump start? Do you carry leads? Either flag someone down or call for a taxi to jump start it for you...then try not to turn it off.

Yes it DOES have fuel....

We tried jump leads but no luck. Friend coming to pick me up now and go back to it.

I was a tad stressed on my original post! Could you tell?

Is it diesal? I have a diesel & it sometimes won't start after a short journey. Mechanic friend says that it can be a problem with diesels . Not fixable. (And bloody annoying & embarrassing when in a long queue waiting to get on a car ferry)

dont want to be arsey but no manufacturer could seriously hope to manuf. /sell any vehicle ,with any hope of success if it had a built in "does not restart after short journey" problem.That model would bomb ,bigstyle. my bloke who helps out at a mate"s garage sometimes, says modern cars are uber sensitive to servicing schedules/sensors, everything/problem/fault can be fixed ,at a price.

Don't know if this is being helpful or not, but my last car did this. It was in good nick, but sometimes would just not start. It turned out to be a faulty lambda sensor (oxygen sensor) in the exhaust. Cheap to fit, but will not be detected unless you have a mechanic plug the car into a computer. I imagine there are all sorts of other sensors that make cars die.

What car is it?

Is it a Renault by any chance?

Ours is playing up, 2 new batteries don't know why their draining, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't drives me mad so bloody unreliable, it's a Polo remember the ad 'wished everything in life was as reliable' what a joke! The RAC don't know what's up and say we need an auto electrician, more money!

What happens when you try to start it? Engine turns over but doesn't start; slow, lethargic whirring; small click then nothing; or nothing at all?

I had an auto electrician out to my car yesterday for a similar problem manyana11 and it only cost me £20. Had been putting if off for ages as worried about the cost as well!

Had the same problem with mine, would be perfect for days then play up for days, battery was fine but mechanic says there was something draining it, got rid and never found out why it refused to start some days.

It's a Rover.....a 15 year old one but under 100k on the clock.

Yes it turns over but wont fire up.

My mechanic friend came over this evening and took me back to it. It still wouldn't start so he fiddled under the bonnet for 10 mins and then hey presto.....

Bad news is that he has no idea why it does this either.

I suspect I am going to need a new car but I really really cant afford it. Am checking out the bus routes to DS's school and think we can manage if we absolutely have to. It's a bit of a walk to the bus stop (just over a mile) but we could cope with that.

So it's home, I did shopping on the way and put in petrol and it started fine after both of those.

Thank you by the way for all the ideas. Might get someone to look at it with regard to some of the sensor stuff.

Go Japanese, I have a toyota and a subaru, which are amazing for reliability, they always start first time,

I have to have a car that will start, as we have middle of the night call outs, and we live rurally.

I will stick with the Japanese makes as they are so well designed and built, if you give them six month services, they go on forever.

we have vans, they are a total pain.

We ended up with Japanese cars by accident, and was very surprised how good they are and what a difference it makes to have such a well made car,

I've had most four wheel drives and estate cars, usually german or swedish, and land rover, but I will be sticking to the Japanese made ones, purely down to reliability and four wheel performance, off road.

Our Rover (03 plate, 75 diesel) had starting problems a while ago. DH replaced the contacts in the starter motor (cost about £15) and it's been fine ever since.

But it's a BMW engine, probably completely different from yours, so not very helpful.

DH suggests the MG Rover forum here

My Renault has had this exact problem this weekend - very simple fix, it was the TDC / Crankshaft sensor. Cost about £40 in total, including labour.

My old rover had this problem, it was the starter