moosefist

I drove home today, and my car was running fine shut it off for a couple hours and when i went to leave for class it wouldnt start. I would turn the key and the ac turned on full blast, also the radio, but the weird thing was my hazards were flashing quicklyr egardless of whetger the button was pushed or not. I tried jump starting the car, but no luck. My voltage reads at 13v on the gauge anyway. I hooked up my vagcom and pulled a few errors 1 for the egr, 2 on the o2 sensor, and 1 for insufficient fuel. Would any of those cause the engine not to crank? Also what is the signifigance of the flashing hazards? I disconnected the battery and went to class and am posting from my phone :-)

The car is a 97 a4 quattro 12v 2.8L with 167k on the engine.

Nate (ETKA+Scumbag)

13v, but how many CCA's? I say bad cell on the battery. Low voltage causes weird things.

moosefist

Can I check that with a handheld meter? The sway bar would make it a pita to haul it to autozone.

Nate (ETKA+Scumbag)

Sure, if you have a hand held battery tester. Used one all the time when I worked at a shop.

moosefist

All I have are a couple digital volt meters.

Audiboy

No, you can't check cold crank amps with a meter. The most they will do is 10A (20A some models). You're thinking voltage in which he has plenty of. 13V is a sign of a healthy battery assuming it wasn't fresh off a charger.

moosefist

I guess I will be taking the battery to be tested. I hope its that simple. Should I be able to pop my clutch to get the car going?

Audiboy

Put the key in on. Check the voltage on the cluster. Now crank it. Did it dip at all? If it dipped to about 10V or so, your starter motor could be fried or the engine is frozen. If it didn’t even dip, then it could be your ignition switch, the starter relay in the fuse box or the starter solenoid on the starter.

Audiboy

If the engine is not frozen yes. This was how I started my A4 when a ignition switch fried the starter. You'll need a good push.

Audiboy

Actually I take that back. There are shop meters that have a load check that can see if the battery can drive a big load for a short amount of time. Still not the full CCA but in the hundreds of amps.