Car wont turn over help

It might be that there isn't enough power going to the starter to get it up to the RPM Required to start it. Also check the spark-plugs. If those get gummed up, that may prevent it from turning over.

Our car had a jammed starter motor. Bump starting it (starting an engine by pushing it down the road) got it unjammed. You can't do that if your car has a catalytic convertor though...

Or is an automatic

Spenser - what sort of a sound are you getting when you try to start? Just a click, a definite rur-rur-rur of the engine turning but not starting? That would help us figure out where the problem might be.

Au Contraire, you can do that with an automatic, albeit it's very hard on your transmission. Put the car in neutral, get it rolling a fair speed and drop the transmission into drive. Some cars do not respond well to this (such as late model GM trucks), and I don't recommend performing this often, or at all if you can avoid it. However, sometimes your starter motor seizes 100mi from civilization and you have no other choice...

Still, it's not as bad as dropping your clutch and having to drive 100mi in 1st gear

The Czar

Definately check the plugs. about 2 weeks ag, my Z woudn't trun over and it was becasue the plugs were so fouled. Check the battery as well.

make sure the ground off the battery is goos as well as the ground on the starter motor.

Check the terminals. Also look at the wires. Sometimes acid can seep into the wires and corrode the copper up to an inch from the terminals. If this is the case, the wires will need to be replaced. If the top of the battery is wet with acid, your voltage regulator is overcharging the battery. Clean the top with baking soda and tap water. Then check each cell acid level. It should be about 1/2" from the top of the battery. If any are low, add DISTILLED water.

Maintenance free batteries, aren't.

Your SOOO right about that. they will boil out eventually, only ones ive ever seen not do it as bad are the optima batteries, red, yellow and blue top batteries. those are worth the money cause they last a long time.

What impact does the catalytic converter have on push/pop/bump-starting a car?

It allows much more unburned fuel into that cat than it would normally see. This can make it heat up much more than it should and break down the catalyst. Also, it can be full of fuel-air mixture and be ignited when the motor starts resulting in rather catestrophic failure (and a loud BANG!)

Also, the neat petrol is passed into the platinum catalyst causing catalyst poisoning. AFAIK, this binds more strongly to the catalyst active sites - blocking other chemicals from binding.

Also, being a heterogeneous catalyst, they are designed to work with a gas.

hi my car does not start atall the battery has just bin charged and all i am gettin is a tick when i turn he key! does any one know wht this is cus i have no clue!

One (or more) of five things:

• Alternator belt is broken and isn't turning the alternator
• Solenoid is seized or shorted, and isn't switching the starter motor on (note that solenoids in most newer cars are built into the starter, so you have to replace the whole starter)
• Battery is dead and isn't holding the charge
• Voltage regulator is shot and isn't getting proper voltage to the battery
• Alternator is shot and isn't sending a charge

You can track it down by trial and error (and spending a lot of money on parts), or you can have a mechanic look at it.

By the way: Proper spelling, grammar and punctuation are appreciated in this forum. They help us to better understand your questions, and you'll find you get better answers.

Your original post should have read:

hey mister grammer you missed a mistake while correcting the other guy.

This isn't necessary.

Boost the battery with a jump box (booster cable or battery charger) see if it'll crank over and start

If it cranks and nothing happens, then you can try what others have suggested, however the one thing nobody asked is "what year, make model, of car is it" It matters once the troubleshooting goes beyond the "Dead battery or bad alternator" scenario.

I had an older ford that would crank and crank, never start, I'd just kill the battery, It was one of those $500 get me around cars, Initially I didn't even know it had fuel injection and an electric fuel pump. Anyway, to make a long story short, there was an impact sensor in the trunk that would shut off the fuel pump if it was tripped, turned out it was old enough of a car, that there was a problem with this sensor and it tripped itself (never from any sort of impact or other issue)

Just start out with looking for the obvious, If it just "stopped working right" suddenly, and you had no indication of a problem at any time before, then generally its a dead battery, weak/worn battery, an alternator that isn't fully charging the battery (hence the battery went dead) or on newer cars, many have power distribution controllers, that sometimes go bad, every car maker has a different name for it, but basically its an intelligent controller that distributes power to the different accessories, in fords, hondas, and mitsubishi's there were recalls and required replacement at some point.

Please look at the date on the original post. This is a two and a half year old thread.
I strongly suspect his car problem is remedied one way or another by now.