I ran into a problem today with starting my car. i put my key in the ignition and turn it on, but not the engine, and nothing turns on. No radio.. lights or anything. thought it was my battery, so a friend of mine connected his battery to mine with cables and all of a sudden it started winding like it wanted to start. Weird thing is, my key wasn't in the ignition.

any thoughts? suggestions? anything would help, just need to get an idea of wat to look for and fix.

 

You do not say what make car this is on. I had this happen on my wife's AMC Pacer put key in went to start dead. Put jumpers on the battery and when we put the last cable on sparks flew and instantly tried to crank over. It turned out that when the battery goes down it would close a relay that would try to start the car.
You have nothing to loose by putting a new battery in.

 

1998gs300

battery fine, Optima yellow top

 

starter is gone. Normally i'd say replace the contacts and check the wire connections but in this case where youre not getting any feedback at all, the starter is more likely gone.

 

starter death on 10 yr old 2GS is not unusual.