[5s-fe] Engine doesnt turn over. Options

[Syaoran]

So, I went to turn on the car this morning and I missed two of my classes thanks to it not wanting to start over.

I have not done diagnostics as I had no time to do so. I tried turning it over many times and the lights just dimmed down as if cranking but there was no response.

[richee3]

The lights will dim even on a fully charged battery. That's normal. It's just to what extent they dim. It could easily be a loose or corroded battery terminal mimicking a dead battery. Or, I've seen batteries that are great one time you start thR car, leave it sit for a few hours, and the battery is shot. (Wal Mart Neverstart batteries in that instance.) Either way, I'm willing to bet its something battery related and that your next post in this thread will be like "I had a look at it and the problem was (insert incredibly simple fix here.) I can't believe I missed that!" Good luck.

[Syaoran]

The lights will dim even on a fully charged battery. That's normal. It's just to what extent they dim. It could easily be a loose or corroded battery terminal mimicking a dead battery. Or, I've seen batteries that are great one time you start thR car, leave it sit for a few hours, and the battery is shot. (Wal Mart Neverstart batteries in that instance.) Either way, I'm willing to bet its something battery related and that your next post in this thread will be like "I had a look at it and the problem was (insert incredibly simple fix here.) I can't believe I missed that!" Good luck.

Lights even dim when starting my Mazda3, and it has a brand new Optima Yellowtop. The car always dims the lights when cranking. Voltage drops from 12v to around 9v when cranking a car. I'm not an idiot. (comment directed at everyone else)

I'm going to do some tests tonight and tomorrow morning and I'll see what happens, but it's starting to look like something starter related rather than battery (relay or starter itself)

EDIT:
Went to start it earlier without doing anything to it, and it just decided to start over just fine.

I guess it didn't want to go to college today.

This post has been edited by Syaoran: Sep 12, 2012 - 10:11 PM

[Special_Edy]

The lights will dim even on a fully charged battery. That's normal. It's just to what extent they dim. It could easily be a loose or corroded battery terminal mimicking a dead battery. Or, I've seen batteries that are great one time you start thR car, leave it sit for a few hours, and the battery is shot. (Wal Mart Neverstart batteries in that instance.) Either way, I'm willing to bet its something battery related and that your next post in this thread will be like "I had a look at it and the problem was (insert incredibly simple fix here.) I can't believe I missed that!" Good luck.

Lights even dim when starting my Mazda3, and it has a brand new Optima Yellowtop. The car always dims the lights when cranking. Voltage drops from 12v to around 9v when cranking a car. I'm not an idiot. (comment directed at everyone else)

I'm going to do some tests tonight and tomorrow morning and I'll see what happens, but it's starting to look like something starter related rather than battery (relay or starter itself)

EDIT:
Went to start it earlier without doing anything to it, and it just decided to start over just fine.

I guess it didn't want to go to college today.

It takes 75%-85% of a full charge to crank the starter. If your battery is at 12 volts then it has less than 25% charge. If it dips below 12 volts then it is fully discharged.

You need about 12.4-12.5 volts normally to start the car