shollins96

Hey everyone, I'm in need of some insight in regards to my car. Last night, my friends and I were driving home and out of no where my car stalls. The lights on my dash all illuminated and the steering wheel grew heavy. I pulled over to the side and attempted to start the car but only received a click from the starter with no hesitation of the car attempting to turn over. Fast forwarding to the next day after getting the car towed, I tried to diagnose any problems I could figure out after my subtle research from the night.

The battery was not the issue. A new battery was swapped in earlier this month. After being checked with the multimeter, it showed sufficient juice still coming from it.

The alternator could possibly be the problem but before the night the car stalled, no signs appeared such as the lights dimming or any power shortages that would have been taken note upon. At this point I drew a line with the alternator not being the problem because it was working perfectly fine before the night.

Lastly, I come down to the starter. I don't think it is the problem due to the possible functions of hearing the click but it is possible.

The worse case scenario I am thinking right now is due to the fact that I saw the car was drained of coolant. It is possible that the engine may have seized but I don't want to rule that option in until I have no other possibilities still available for me.

If anyone has an idea of what may have happened as well as any solutions to fix the problem, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks for your time to read through this !

marvin5881

This is just a random guess to get the thread started but have you checked the serpentine belt to see if it has snapped off?

911LE

Having no coolant is definitely a concern. Put a socket and breaker bar on the crankshaft bolt and see if your can spin the engine by hand. Could be a broken timing belt caused by a failed water pump.

dwoods801

There was a serious issue with water pumps several years ago. They would essentially work great and then with no warning they would have a blow out and dump all the coolant and the engine would usually get smoked without even showing an increase on the temp gauge. I thought this issue had been resolved but it would happen just like u described. If it’s outta coolant, it’s probably an unfortunate loss of engine. Pray the fuel pump just died, maybe it was still holding coolant in the radiator and just the overflow had gotten low with time

Aus430

Woah! Stalling whilst in motion doesn't happen often. As battery is ok tested with Multimeter and no other low electrical power symptoms, I agree it's not likely to be the cause of sudden stall no start.

The coolant thing does peak interest...

Lets start with basics.

Oil present? Conditon? I hope not full of coolant.

Assuming those are ok move on

1.remove one of the timing belt inspection covers and check belt is tight and intact
2. Assuming tbelt is good - Remove spark plugs and see if you can turn the crank over with a socket on a ratchet or breaker bar
3. If engine turns (and timing belt turns with it) then you can assume the engine is probably ok and it will be an electrical (including fuel pump or security system) thing. Reassemble spark plugs and timing belt cover.
4. Check all fuses.

Let us know with those checks.
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Jabberwock

You most likely need a new battery. Assuming you have coolant in the radiator, install a new battery, or have the car jumped from a running car and see if the engine turns over.

But if you ran the engine with no coolant it may have seized. Check the coolant level in your radiator - not in the overflow tank - it is a common thong for the overflow tank to be near empty but still have full or nearly full coolant in the radiator.