Killed the tour day (By Accident)

Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives

No I didn't get in an accident. I went to work and left my lights on (for 4 hours!) I came out of work and tryed to unlock the doors using my remote fob. I thought it was odd it did not work. I started to wonder if I drained the battery. No dome lights. Turned the key. Nothing. No clicking, dead

. My grandpa came and jumped it. I charged it for about a hour and a half. Now he's purring again

if it's an MTX i would've just bump started.

It's a ATX.

Originally posted by 5V7 Dr1v3r627:
if it's an MTX i would've just bump started.

how does that work anyways? like, what is the technical reason why that works? doesnt the starter need power to start up?

You are skipping the starter.

the starter cranks the flywheel fast enough to create the compression/ignition in the cylinders to get the engine going in its cycle.

you are skipping the ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN starter and MANUALLY driving the flywheel fast enough by rolling the car in N, (flywheel stays still) and then putting it in gear and dumping the clutch fast (pops the flywheel in to rotation, matching the cars speed.. enough to start the process like the starter would do.

You just have to make sure you depress the clutch again after you dump it.. or else the car dies from being at a near stop (can't maintain idle at that low of a speed) and you are back to square one (pushing the car in neutral to gain speed)

so its:

neutral..
push car..
hop in..
clutch in..
1st gear..
DUMP CLUTCH OUT THEN BACK IN..

car is running...
start driving like normal.

Can be done in "R"everse if you are pushing the car backwards, as well.

bump starting has saved my ass a couple times, but with the beater, not the CSVT

When you push the car and then let out the clutch in 1st gear, the engine spins, the alternator puts out voltage and it starts. From there on, it's normal operation.

That's happened to me a couple of times. Once by leaving the lights on, the other because of a weak battery, while the engine was still running. The speedometer was fluctuating wildly and cut off while I was in a line to get gas at Costco. The attendant pushed me out of the line, and a few minutes later, they closed. I was pissed.

I heard of this thing that you plug into the cig lighter to "jumpstart" from inside the car. I only glanced at it in a car mag. Has anyone ever used a thing like that? Just curious.

We have one in every car we have at our house.

Can be used three times to start the car.

They also sell a rechargable version that you can simply charge in your car while running.. then unplug it to save the charge for whenever you want (3 or 4 starts per charge)

Work great.. work flawlessly.

Sweet! I should get one.

I don't bother with jump packs for my car and truck cause they're both manual so i can b/s em

Originally posted by gearhead:
When you push the car and then let out the clutch in 1st gear, the engine spins, the alternator puts out voltage and it starts. From there on, it's normal operation.

Thatâ�?��?�s not quite true. The alternator needs a field current to produce a magnetic field for the stator. Rotation of the stator in the field produces current. With an alternator, you need current to produce current. In the old days when generators were used, you could get current by rotating the generator because of â�?��?residual magnetismâ�?� stored in the generator from the fact that the generator is a DC device (alternators produce AC that is rectified to DC). A magnetic field produced by DC current can be used to magnetize and one produce by an AC current can be used to de-magnetize.

To push start car with a PCM and FI, you need at least enough voltage in the battery to run the PCM and enough current to fire the injectors and produce spark.

jeff

Originally posted by gearhead:
When you push the car and then let out the clutch in 1st gear, the engine spins, the alternator puts out voltage and it starts. From there on, it's normal operation.

Yes and no. The car may be running normally but the alternator is producing its maximum output to try to keep the car running and charge the battery. If the battery is not charged soon it is a good way to kill the alternator.

Originally posted by mercman:

Originally posted by gearhead:
When you push the car and then let out the clutch in 1st gear, the engine spins, the alternator puts out voltage and it starts. From there on, it's normal operation.

Thatâ�?��?�s not quite true. The alternator needs a field current to produce a magnetic field for the stator. Rotation of the stator in the field produces current. With an alternator, you need current to produce current. In the old days when generators were used, you could get current by rotating the generator because of â�?��?residual magnetismâ�?� stored in the generator from the fact that the generator is a DC device (alternators produce AC that is rectified to DC). A magnetic field produced by DC current can be used to magnetize and one produce by an AC current can be used to de-magnetize.

To push start car with a PCM and FI, you need at least enough voltage in the battery to run the PCM and enough current to fire the injectors and produce spark.

jeff

I never bothered with the funky cig lighter ones, instead I got a bigass booster battery

It's not even that big of one, but powerful as heck. I think I started the car at least 8 or so times off it when our battery died ... maybe 10 times, either way that was over like a year and I never charged it lol...

Then I did charge it

It was funny though because our mechanic tried to jump start the car with his big ole buick's battery but didn't get anything but cranking, I plugged mine in, he was like.. WTF? No way!

It fired right up

I'd love to try a cig lighter one for that factor

But uh, yeah.. that was back when we didn't have a way to drive the car so it just sat in the driveway, now we can

And that's fun!

Originally posted by 5V7 Dr1v3r627:
bump starting has saved my ass a couple times, but with the beater, not the CSVT

^

HAHAHA....NICE!

Originally posted by Ray:
so its:

neutral..
push car..
hop in..
clutch in..
1st gear..
DUMP CLUTCH OUT THEN BACK IN..

car is running...
start driving like normal.

1st gear? I've always done that in 2nd or 3rd. Especially when I've had friends pushing the car...

I had to bump start my RX7 all the time because it would flood the engine while parked. Stupid rotary. My car got nicknamed the Bobsled because we'd have to push it down the hill in the parking lot.

When the starter on my old svt died, I parked the car on the huge hill of a driveway i have. When I went to drop the car off to have the car fixed while I was at work i just let the parking brake off put the car in first let it start rolling backwards and clutched out and then clutched in once it started.

I prolly should have put it in reverse in that situation but I wasnt thinking :P

Looks like you took the "turn your damn lights on" thread a little too seriously.

--T.J.

I did that with my contour... I had a remote starter, and when the car is in the ON position, i was able to press the button, and then take the key out, and leave the car on... Well I turned the car to acc, then back to On, then did it so the engine was off, but the radio stayed on so I can have my music blasting as i walk to work... Bout a few hours later "Hey.. Dont you own a purple contour?? Its almost dead..."

I forgot my lights were on... and since the chimes didn't activate, I didnt check if my lights were on or off on a bright sunny day... I later started my car off MonsterCable speaker wire

Supringly, it gave my car that boost of power to kick the starter over