car wornt start. suprise suprise...

[sleepyeyeds14]

Yesterday morning my battery was dead so i jump started it. Then i drove a mile down the road to my buddys house. I hung out there for about 4 hours, then when i went to leave the car wouldnt start. There was no clicking as if the battery was dead. Just nothing. all the electronics shut off like it was going to start. but nothing just like if the starter was bad. so i hooked up jumper cables, and nothing changed. Then out of now where the starter started working. but the car still wouldnt start. The fuel pump turns on, and the starter "starts" the the engine doesnt turn on. I havent had time to check for spark. But im skeptical about that because it drove perfectly fine just hours before. and the distributor, cap and rotor are about 4 weeks old. I just finished a KAE to DE swap 4 weeks ago also. so the car has a 1996 KA in a 1990 hatch... Any help would be greatly appreciated! Also, i checked the alternator fuse and its not that...

[future]

The car will start with a bad alternator. Just fyi

[cotbu]

Future, keeping my faith in 20yr old's!

[ultimateirving]

Hey man ur ecu plug isnt tightened down.
Sounds like something is coming loose within your electronics

[sleepyeyeds14]

Thanks for your replies. i appreciate it! im sure the alternator is good because i kept the car at idle for about 20 minutes before i shut it off, and all the electronics where working perfectly... But i will check for the plug being loose... that is a great idea!! I hope that is the problem. but would that cause somethings to work perfectly and cause others to not work at all???

[jr_ss]

Check all your connections, plugs, wires, terminals. You'd be surprised at the funky stuff a simple loose wire will/can cause.

[Walperstyle]

Swap a battery for a day with someone, if the problem still happens, bench test the alternator at one of your autozones. Check fuzes.

...then do harder troubleshooting. Could be the starter as well. I've had one of them leech power.

[sleepyeyeds14]

ok, so today was the first day i was able to really look at my car. i decided that before i even start to touch anything i should try to start it and maybe, just maybe, it will start. But the battery was dead so i hooked up the jumper cables, and the car started up(with a little hesitation.) It started then stalled out, then i started it gave it a few revs and then it ran just fine. i drove it up and down the street a few times, and now it seems as if there was never a problem... Possibly a bad battery??? i already took 2 old yellow top optimas to autozone to be charged and tested, so hopefully one of them is good and ill be able to test if its the battery...

[Walperstyle]

do what I say, then report back.

(if you have friends, cousins, or uncles... borrow a known working battery, try it out in your car, then attack other possible issues)