yesterday morning, before the storm picked up here, I started my car to move it about 20' over in the driveway to clear it out of the path of any falling branches etc. The car started fine and drove fine.

It sat there all day yesterday in heavy rain, but there was NO flooding here and the exterior of the car was dry this morning. Our jeep parked right next to the car started fine.

My car, however, would not start. Foot on brake, push ignition button, sputter sputter crank then sounding like it stalled. Rinse and repeat.

My father was finally able to get the car to start by holding the ignition button down while giving the car throttle until eventually it turned over. It starts fine now, but the throttle doesn't feel right, it feels rough and there is a lot of vibration through the pedal.

So...why did my car with only 35,600 miles on it refuse to start this morning? No one can figure it out, and I don't want to call the dealership which is an hour away if it is a known issue.

 

Did the water reach over 2 feet by chance? or did you leave the hood open?

Im just reaching for things now?

 

No, the car was not in standing water of any kind and the hood was closed. I don't have concern that any substantial amount of water could have gotten in the engine.

This car has had issues with not actually starting when the ignition is pushed, when it goes into some kind of neutral and inches forward a bit. I am wondering if the two issues are related.

 

Check to make sure all interior lights are off. Idk if our car turns off the lights automatically when the key is not sensed but that could be a cause of concern in terms of your battery being juiced. Im no expert but that simple issue came to mind.

 

I had a similar issue w my other car when the batt didn't have enough juice. Change it out or jump it to see if it'd work.

 

Battery is fine...I saw the car several times yesterday and no interior lights were on, and obviously the headlights were not on.

It starts fine now, so I don't think the battery is the issue.

 

Is it still under warranty? A 2008 with 36k miles likely would be. If not the factory warranty, then definitely powertrain. I'd take it into a dealer, I wouldn't waste time trying other things when you can get it fixed for free.

Haven't heard of this issue, so I'm anxious to hear the outcome. Sorry for the issues you're having.

 

I'd assume that the issue is related to you flooding the motor. When you started the car to move it only 20 feet, it didn't run long enough to burn all of the excess gas that's added in for cold starts. It has happened to my GS before as well as an Altima I had. The car will be fine once you drive it around a bit and get the excess burned up. At least, this is what it sounds like to me.

For reference, the Altima didn't start again for two days until I swapped the plugs. I left the plugs out for about 20 minutes for the cylinders to air out in between and once the new plugs were in, it didn't have the issue at all.

 

It is under CPO warranty for 3 more years, minus the 2 months I've had the car.

 

I drove it about 10 miles this morning after it refused to start, but I have moved it short distances many times before that and not had an issue.

 

you should visit your dealer and find out what happen to your car.

 

Is it running any smoother? Are you still having any vibration or starting issues?

 

Looking at the battery indicator does provide a bit of info. A actual diagnostic test would be needed to determine the battery's status which the dealership can perform.

 

It is running better and starts fine now. I know this car does not have a cold start injector (that tech died a long time ago) so I don't think it was a flooding issue. I am going to run some techron through it and call the dealer from work tomorrow.