hey do-it-yourselfers today I'm going to
share with you three of my superpowers
that should allow you to start a vehicle
that has a dead battery and/or a dead
starter or a vehicle that has problems
with this ignition switch today I'm
going to share with you not only the how
but the why as well but make sure you
use these powers for good not evil
alright and actually before we start and
our superpowers I have a huge favor to
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to be coming out alright so in the first
scenario let's say you get in your car
put the key in the ignition you turn the
key and nothing alright so if that's the
case you need to figure out whether
there's a problem with your battery or
maybe it's your starter so what do you
can do to narrow your problem down is to
let's say your car has automatic windows
make sure you can use them and the
window goes up and down as fast as it
normally does you can also turn on your
headlights and make sure they're nice
and bright now this might be hard to
tell during the day but at night it
should be pretty obvious now if they're
not nice and bright then obviously
there's a problem with your battery but
they're come on nice and bright you
still need to do another test which is
to obviously try to start your car and
then observe your headlights when you
turn your key to the start position your
headlights should dim you know this is
obviously again gonna be easier at night
but if you're doing it during the day
have someone else stand outside the car
and look at your headlights when they
dim that they indicate that power is
actually being routed through the
starter and your starter is not the
problem and indeed is the battery that's
too weak I'm going to get in there and
start this car and this car doesn't have
a bad battery nor a bad starter but you
will still be able to see the headlight
stem for a split second
all right so let's say your headlights
don't dim when you turn the key to the
start position at the same time you do
not suspect you have a weak battery
because your windows work properly and
your headlights are nice and bright
well the next likely culprit is probably
your starter especially if your starter
has been acting up lately all right so
the first thing you need to do is to
find your starter now if you watch my
previous video you would remember that
the starter is the component that draws
the most amount of amps on your car now
the starter is grounded through the
engine which is grounded through cables
that are connected to the chassis and
the chesty obviously is grounded back to
the negative side of your battery
however it does need to be supplied by a
wire or a cable from the positive side
of your battery so basically you start
at the positive side of the battery and
follow the cables that come from this
side back one of them one of the thick
cables should go to your starter now on
this car you can see one cable get split
off and go to this junction box and the
rest of them go underneath this junction
box and then they come out from this end
and if you follow them they go towards
the underneath the intake manifold and
right there you guys may not be able to
see this but right there is our story
motor which is right now sitting there
like this now a lot of times when your
starter motor stops working it's a
problem with the brushes wearing out or
developing corrosion and not making
contact with the commutator so here's
your brushes right here now this one
there's four of them and here's where
they need to make good contact all right
so here's even a closer look and if you
look closely you can already see these
brushes being kind of worn out but
anyway when they don't make contact with
this end the commutator the the they're
not current doesn't flow through this
starter and it doesn't spin now what you
can do is to grab a long screwdriver pry
bar piece of wood whatever you can get
your hands on and try to get on the
starter motor and then give it a good
couple of taps with a hammer and while
you at it try to tap on the solenoid as
well and what that does is to hopefully
allow the brushes to make good contact
with the commutator or move them just
enough so that they're making better
contact than they were before and
hopefully allow you
to start your car and the same technique
might work with a dead fuel pump as I've
demonstrated in the past the hell out of
our fuel tank and maybe a fuel pump will
start alright next up let's talk about a
circumstance where you suspect problems
with your ignition switch and when we're
talking about ignition switches we're
not talking about this and this is your
ignition locks on there where the key
goes in the ignition switch is an
electrical component that goes at the
back of your ignition locks on there and
switch assembly what it does is
basically routes power from your battery
to the different control modules on your
car so for example when you put together
the car turn the key to the on position
it routes more power through the
ignition switch to your ECU your body
control module module your car's
computer basically and that's when you
get the lights to come on in your dash
now science you might be having problems
with your ignition switch is that when
you put the key and turn it to the on
position the lights don't come on on
your dash and you have to you might have
to like push the key
you know wiggle it play with it and then
the lights come on and off then that
could mean a problem with your ignition
switch all right so in this scenario
let's say you turn the key to the on
position
sometimes the lights come on sometimes
they don't but let's say this time they
come on but when you turn the key to the
start position the car doesn't start
alright so if that's the case that means
a signal or a power is not being sent
through your starter solenoid to the
signal post of your starter now what you
can do is go to the junction box and
locate your starter relay now we're
lucky to have this info at hand and our
starter relay is this relay right here
and then you locate pins 30 and 87 on
this 4 pin really sometimes you have a 5
pin oh really but regardless you need to
look at pins 30 and 87 in our case it's
gonna be this pin and this pin and then
you find the corresponding terminals on
the junction box which are going to be
nice too
and then you jump those two terminals
now however before you do this make sure
that you're doing this correctly because
if you jump the two wrong terminals you
can damage the wiring inside your car
and then if you damage the wiring that
goes through the junction box then
diagnosing and fixing that is gonna be a
lengthy process even for a competent
and so make sure you really know what
you're doing now sometimes if you're
lucky enough on your really you can see
a diagram that will tell you which side
is the switch side and which side is the
load side you're not always this lucky
and you should really learn about relays
before you attempt this so you don't
damage your car now if you're interested
in learning these I have a video on how
you can test relays you'll learn all
about relays if you watch that video
just have to do a search and on my
channel for how to properly test relays
and it will come up alright so we'll do
this live so people don't think we're
cheating so we put the key in the on
position make sure the lights come on
[Music]
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there we go
now you might be saying hey when I put
the key in the ignition nothing comes on
no lights come on at all if that's the
case then things could be a little bit
more complicated you need to get to your
ignition switch look at a wiring diagram
and see which wires take power to the
different control modules on your car
supply power to those wires and then you
should be able to start your car from
your ignition switch at the same time
bypassing your ignition switch all right
up next we're gonna talk about bump
starting or push starting your car that
has a bad battery and or a bad starter
now unfortunately this only works on
cars that come with a manual
transmission and the way this basically
works is that we're going to use the
transmission in this car to turn the
engine now basically the way it normally
works is that power goes from your
engine to the transmission then from the
output shaft of the transmission to the
wheels and then they turn the wheels and
your car gets going now but by doing
this we might work do it backwards or
work our way backwards we're gonna use
the wheels to turn that the output shaft
of the transmission in turn is gonna
turn the gears inside the transmission
which in turn are going to turn the
engine so yeah when you use the
transmission to turn the engine over as
the engine turns over it sucks in the
air compresses the air fuel mixture and
then your course computer gets that
crank signal and starts the spark plugs
and then your cars gets going also when
you turn the engine your alternator
turns creating a bit of current which is
usually enough to get the cars computer
going where you can start the whole
ignition timing also this car is a
perfect example for this because indeed
it does have a weak battery by the way
that's a telltale sign of a weak battery
all right so the way this works is you
get in your car get the keys put the key
in the ignition and turn it to the on
position now your lights may not come on
but this car just has enough juice for
the lights to come on but next you push
down on the clutch and while holding the
clutch down you put the car or the
transmission in second gear all right so
next you need to get someone to either
push your car or sense as you can see
I'm parked downhill I'm simply going to
release my emergency parking brakes and
then once the car starts rolling and
builds up some momentum I'm gonna
release the clutch quickly and you will
not hear a noise as normal
with a starter so here we go you'll just
get a bit of a jolt and your car gets
going as you can see and here
so yeah make sure you use these super
powers for good not evil
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alright thanks for watching I'll see you
guys next time
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