Last friday I left my car for washing at the usual place. When I got back the starter motor and EPS were dead. The people at the carwash said the car wouldn't start after washing up. As far as I can tell no one opened the hood.

Fuses are fine, there is power, but once you press the start button all you hear is a click and nothing happens.

I ended up starting the engine by pushing the car and drove straight to the dealer as I'm a bit busy at the moment with no time to do any sort of diagnosing. After the drive to the dealer, EPS did not come back, neither did the starter. Same symptoms.

I was wondering if there is any common component between these two systems that may be responsible for the double failure. It also sounds like water had someting to do with it, but it may as well be a coincidence.

Any suggestions?

 

Simply sounds like a drained battery.. did they listen to the radio while washing?

 

Did the EPS work while the car was running?

 

sounds like the battery to me too

 

I doubt it... There was plenty of power for lights and things but the starter wouldn't even turn.

Would a drained battery disable the EPS as well? I have had a flat battery before and although the starter wouldn't turn, once I got the engine running there was no problem with the power steering. Which wasn't the case this time.

 

It's possible if you've got one bad cell in your battery your voltage could be down 17% or so. I suppose the EPS could freak and not initialize correctly due to the low voltage ........ maybe ...... Good Luck!

If you try jump starting it and it still doesn't work, we can at least rule the battery out ........ then we'll move to the next stab in the dark

 

A good simple battery test is turn on highbeams, and hit the horn for a few seconds. A weak battery usually lets out a pathetic sound rather than a good toot.

 

...and did you check the two fuse boxes under the hood as well as the one in the drivers footwell?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by RT
[B]It's possible if you've got one bad cell in your battery your voltage could be down 17% or so.

 

it started OK when jumped though?