Evening EvoM'ers. Got a doozie and I need some help.

My wife has a 08 and it flat-out died today. Here's the scenario.... we've been running errands all day and the car's been fine. Went to the local wal-mart to get a new battery for the igniton key, came back out to the car to leave for home and the car was dead. Didnt start, and didnt even turn over.

Tried jumping the battery - no luck, so i went to the auto parts place across the parking lot and got a new battery. Again, no luck. Tried to jump the new battery just on a hunch and nothing. I had the family help me push the car over to the auto parts place. The used a scan tool to see if there were any DTC's. There were none. Then I had the parts place recheck the new battery just to verify that it was good, and it was.

We dug into the owners manual to see what fuses were what. We started with the under hood fuse box. Ended up checking both engine power fuses, the ignition coil fuse, and the starter fuse. Everything was fine, so we got into the fuse block behind the dash. I checked the ignition switch fuse and that one was good too. Even checked the neutral start switch just to see if that was the problem, and again, it was fine.

Ended up swapping the new battery with a second new battery. Same result - no start.

Battery terminals are tight, ground wires are tight, there are no unplugged sensors or sending units that i can see. Everything that i can think of checking - i've checked and everything is fine. I'm lost.

The wife needs this car for work and I'm headed back overseas for my job on the first of the year, so I need some help pretty quick. Can anyone think of anything I'm missing or over looking ??

 

Sounds like you put the new battery for the ignition key in upside down.

 

i hate you so much right now LOL

It wasnt upside down but it wasnt in all the way. Car started on the first try.

I knew it had to be something simple like that. Thanks

 

It's all good, I've been there done that. We have smartish keys that don't start if the key can't talk to the engine. If the engine isn't even trying to turn over, it's the key.

 

ok - now here's a second question... the car does not lock or unlock using the remote. Since the starting issue is solved and the key has a new battery - would that problem be with the actual key ?

 

make sure when you put the remote back together that its all aligned up right...maybe its not hitting the button completely...

 

Yes that would be the key. For what ever reason the lock/unlock function seems to fail on these keys despite the fact that they still work for starting the car. I've been through 4 keys because of this issue, in fact I've been manually unlocking/locking my car for the past month because I'm too lazy to go in and get my 5th key lmao. I swear they're programed to self destruct after 6 months or something so they can make money lol. But yea it's not the battery, going to have to take the key to the dealer.