Reasons why a car won't start

I don't know your story - but if it's nighttime and she doesn't need to start the car again, how about

1. He attacked her while she was unlocking the car.

2. Thinking very quickly she hurled the keys away from her into the darkness (because she saw she'd be safer if he couldn't drive away with her)

3. He went after the keys and she quickly got into the car and locked the doors. So now she's stuck there, safe, but without the keys.

(I don't read a lot of thrillers, so if this is a well-worn story development, people should feel free to point that out. I won't be offended... )

perhaps the key had been damaged somehow and won't fit the ignition

Dandroid said:

perhaps the key had been damaged somehow and won't fit the ignition

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I was thinking this. If you combine the last two comments:

1. He attacked her while she was unlocking the car.

2. Thinking very quickly she turned, pulled the key out and bent it horribly, and fended off the attacker.

3. The key snapped in two when fighting or when she tried to bend it back (that happened to me once).

Other reasons I can think of are coincidental.

Is there anything else (delayed maintenance) that could cause a problem? Something that would have indicated a possible problem earlier, so it's not coincidental?

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Of course. No oil means the car is likely to overheat. No power steering fluid means if she's too weak, she can't turn the wheel. Bad maintenance can certain make a car unusable after a time and downright dangerous, too. What about the belts in the car? If they've been squealing a long time, there's a (slight) chance they may snap.

Those are my suggestions. Most logical would be the first one, I think.

you could go even more grisly if you wished...as in the key bent against his jaw or cheekbone...

Dandroid said:

you could go even more grisly if you wished...as in the key bent against his jaw or cheekbone...

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I like this. <3

I was thinking broken or damaged keys, but Nick beat me too it.

I know that over winter my lock freezes sometimes and I can't get my key into the door (I have a mazda 323) which means five minutes with hot water and deicer to try and get into my car.

If the key has become bloody and the blood has been inserted into the ignition lock, fouling up the ignition lock, that would also help. Car keys rarely bend, they're more apt to break, but, depending on the make, some have grooves/holes that could fill up with dried blood and foul up the works.

If it's a car breaking down: study combustion engines and you'll notice that there are elements necessary for combustion; if you remove an element, the combustion won't take place. Combustion engines are on the whole 'efficient' without needless elements. If one element goes missing, like a 'distributor cap' for instance, the whole system won't work.

Does the car have in immobiliser?

The one I have on my car requires you to plug a fob into a hollow on the dash, remove it and then insert the car key to the ignition. You have about 10 seconds to do the whole thing, and you can't start the car without the fob.

If she's used her keys to defend herself, it's possible that the fob has fallen off, or gotten damaged - they aren't as tough as they look. So while she could get into the car, she wouldn't be able to start it.

Hey Chrisla,

Give the car automatic transmission. In her haste to get away she slams the car into drive then tries to start the engine. But automatics can't start in drive.

That happened to me once. I was sitting at a set of traffic lights and a guy on a motorbike came round the corner too fast and fell of his bike. I switched the engine off to check he was okay. He was fine. He jumped up, started laughing, said it happens all the time. Which led me to conclude that he should take the bus more often.

Anyway, I get in back the car and it won't start. The traffic lights change to green and the people behind me start to get a bit annoyed.

I thought I was out of petrol, but after a while I noticed that the car, a V8 Rover, was still in gear. As soon as I selected N, the engine turned over.

So no mechanical faults, just a head in the clouds.

Regards

Whacko

If I threw my keys off and then locked myself in a car, I'd spend the next few hours terrified my attacker would enter through any door. (I'd dive in the back seat for the knives and tire change kit, but I'd be armed and terrified). Mind you, my Chevy diesel allows more blind spots than a Ford Explorer.

If you go with the belt snapping, this happened to me while accelerating. It's very easy to wreck your vehicle when you suddenly lose power steering and brakes, particularly if you're upset after an attack.

The car will have a fuel cut-off switch that is activated in the event of a collision. All you need to do is get her to clip something quite hard as she is pulling away. It is easily reset, but I doubt she would know how or even that it exists (like everbody else!).

Because it's a Ford

Lots of possibilities. Some of these are car dependent.

1. Car moving and bad guy bangs and bumps hood of car hard enough to set off airbags, and cause the fuel shut off for collisions to kick in.
2. Car not moving and bad guy bangs and bumps car hard enough to set off the burglar alarm, disabling starting switch.
3. Key bent, but in the morning when she inserts it the other way, it works. Sometimes keys bend enough to not work one way but work fine the other.
4. Person is so excited she forgets to turn off the alarm system. For example, some cars you have to move the turn signals before you can start the car. Next morning when she's calm, car starts perfectly.
5. Forgetting to depress the brake pedal.
6. Putting automatic transmission into gear before starting.

Remember that people in a panic forget basic things. This is why drowning victims try to drown their rescuers.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

Reasons why a car won't start:

Because it hates me.

My really lovely and ever faithful Ford... has a fob to unlock the doors. If the battery in the fob goes... no unlocky. You might (?) be able to short the fob out with liquids?

Like most cars, you can have the steering wheel turned to lock and not understand why the key won't turn...

There's always the battery, or some other unseen enemy.

In her struggle/fear during the attack, she could knock the car out of "Park". I think cars won't start if they're not in park. In the dark, she can't see that she knocked it into, say, "reverse". As the morning light comes up, she can figure out what happened, put the gear into park, then start up and drive away.

Has two simiar keys on her key ring (hers and boyfriend/husband's maybe) and jams the wrong one into the ignition, getting it stuck.

Aaron Wilder said:

Has two simiar keys on her key ring (hers and boyfriend/husband's maybe) and jams the wrong one into the ignition, getting it stuck.

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Done this one myself. My ignition key and door keys looked very similar, but were NOT interchangeable. If she's in a panic, it's very possible for her to break that wrong key off in the ignition.

jallenecs said:

Done this one myself. My ignition key and door keys looked very similar, but were NOT interchangeable. If she's in a panic, it's very possible for her to break that wrong key off in the ignition.

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Or to break the ignition key off in the door lock, which creates a dual problem.

Chrisla said:

I need this character stuck in this vehicle for the rest of the night, but can't think of a reason it won't start that is not coincidental (dead battery, etc.)

Is there anything the attacker could do in that short time?

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I'm not quite following this. If she's stuck in the car for the rest of the night, that's a fairly long time.

Has she killed him, or knocked him cold enough that he'll be out for many hours? If not, as soon as he wakes up, he'll still be here and so will she, if she's in the car and it won't start.

As far as being unable to start it goes, if it's not a new car, she could easily flood the engine when she tries to start it in a panic, keep on and on trying (the only thing you can do in that situation is leave it for a good long while) and flatten the battery that way.

If it's an older car and the gas tank isn't locked-- you can have someone pour sugar into the gas tank. Apparently it not only renders a car useless, it can ruin the motor.

skylark said:

As far as being unable to start it goes, if it's not a new car, she could easily flood the engine when she tries to start it in a panic, keep on and on trying (the only thing you can do in that situation is leave it for a good long while) and flatten the battery that way.

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That was my thought - I don't know about current models, but back in the old days, certain cars seemed quite prone to it.

PinkAmy said:

If it's an older car and the gas tank isn't locked-- you can have someone pour sugar into the gas tank. Apparently it not only renders a car useless, it can ruin the motor.

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I'm willing to bet that pouring most anything other than gas into a tank can potentially hurt the car. I think Mythbusters disproved the sugar thing, though.

Key bending: maybe if it is done while it's in the door, but you ain't gonna bend one by stabbing a guy with it, no way.
Sugar in the gas: It might work, but it will take some time. She'll get quite a ways before bad things happen.
Flooding: If it's a model made in the last 15 years, it will have fuel injection and it's not going to flood no matter how much you stop on the gas pedal.
Transmission engaged: Everybody in the US drives automatic transmissions regularly so everybody should be familiar with the starting lockout. I wouldn't use that unless she figures it out pretty quickly. We all do silly things when we're panicked.

Belt snapping: It will stop the car eventually because of no water pressure and now alternator charging the battery. But, that's pretty darned random.

Airbag/Fuel cutoff: Unless the system is malfunctioning, it takes a pretty darned hard impact to get the bags to deploy and for the fuel to shut off. I wouldn't go that way unless you want the truck to be immobile because of damage too.

Keep it simple. She knows her battery is fading (maybe hubby tells her?), but it's still working. She leaves her lights on and that drains the battery enough where the locks work, but the truck won't start. This is assuming she's coming back to the vehicle after leaving it for a while. This is also assuming that the model she has doesn't have an automatic light cutoff. It depends on how old the truck is and how the lights work. Find a manual for it online and read up.

The bad guy couldn't do much unless he can get under the hood. It is possible to reach some stuff from under the vehicle, but it's not easy. Pulling wires off the distributor cap would be a sure way to keep a vehicle from starting. But why would the bad guy do this? His plan is to get to her before she gets in the truck, so why would he sabotage the truck?