My sister was driving my car so im going off the info she gave me. So, she was driving and heard a grinding noise. she says that the brake pedal bagan to vibrate so she pulled over. As soon as the car came to a complete stop the engine shut off and smoke came out of the engine (she says both sides) and some smoke coming through the a/c vents. When i arrived i tried to turn on the car but it does not crank. When i try to crank it the lights dim but the engine doesn't even try to turn. What could this be? Please help! thanks!

 

Knowing the lights dimmed, should be a battery problem...

Don't know so much about why it was smoking though.

 

It has a brand new battery in it. Could it be something else?

 

Possibly a massive short. Check all of the power wires. It could be a alternator or starter failure.

Also could be a massive engine failure.

Does it smell like electrical smoke, or engine smoke?

Can you check the battery voltage and post it?

 

Do you hear a click when you turn the key? Is there an noise or anything coming from under the hood? any parts moving at all? There could be a HECK of a LOT of things wrong here..(BTW some of this info comes from my uncle, who is a mechanic with 15 year experience)

First, get into the car, try to smell around the a/c vent, open the hood smell around the engine. If it was an electrical problem, it will smell like burnt. If you smell antifreeze, check your antifreeze tank see if it's low or if there's anything in it. Worst case scenario - It could mean your engine overheated and one of your heads cracked and antifreeze got inside the engine, and what she saw was not smoke, just steam. Also if it does smell like antifreeze, and you antifreeze levels are low or none at all - pull out your oil dipstick and check if the oil level is normal, if it's high that could mean some antifreeze did get through, which also means it did get in your engine and as a result your cylinders got stuck (the piston rings deformed thus making the grinding noise against the block (best way I can explain it for now, again just one of the possibilities, not necessarily your case.) If that's what happened, you starter won't have enough power to crank the block because it's stuck.

Second, it could be the starter. The starter has a shaft that moves back and forth. When you turn the key, the shaft with the gear head at the end of it get's pulled in, thus making contact with the flywheel and then spins the flywheel to start the engine. When you let go the shaft moves out into neutral positing (no contact with the flywheel) That's why you should listen to see if there's any click when you turn the key. If there is a click and no crank, that means the shaft gets pulled into position, but it can't turn the flywheel (aka crank the engine)

Third, to make sure it's not some other component, like water pump that failed and got stuck, or the a/c Compressor. Try removing your belt thus disconnecting the crankshaft from all the other components in the engine. Try to crank it but DON'T TRY TO START THE ENGINE! Just check if it cranks once or twice without the belt on. If it does crank, means one of the components that spun by the belt broke and got stuck. By the way, when the A/C compressor fails, you could hear a grinding noise. (this happened in my previous car) same could go for your water pump. (also happened in a 9 year old Mazda I owned).

I know that's a lot of info, but it's a general idea. Again do this all AT YOU OWN RISK. As always, to be on the safe side, Take it to a mechanic.

Start one thing at a time.. First the simple things, see if there's a click coming when you turn the key. Check if there's any smells. Check the antifreeze levels and etc.. I'm assuming the car is automatic right? Keep us posted, again one thing at a time.

 

so i checked out my car today. There is no smell at all inside or around the engine. The oil looks like normal. There is no clicking sound at all when trying to start. The interior lights go out completely when trying to turn the car on. The thing i did notice is that there seems to be no fluid in the radiator. The resivior is on really low. Any ideas?

 

Don't worry about the coolant reservoir being low, it just means most of the fluid is in the system. If the antifreeze leaked out somewhere you would most likely smell it under the hood.(given that you know what antifreeze smells like... No offense, just some people don't know.)

It sounds a lot like the battery is dead. Before you try anything else at all, check the battery. I know you said it is brand new, but something might have drained it. You can use jumper cables and hook it up to another car, leave the other car running for about 15 minutes and try to start your engine again... Listen for that click and check too see if your lights still go out while you car is still hooked up to the other car with the engine running.

If nothing changes and there's still no clicking of any kind then it's either a relay or the starter itself is gone.

But first, check the battery, let us know what you find out.

 

First of all...have you opened the hood to see and inspect visually? With all that smoke, the first thing you would do is open the hood.

Second...brake pedal vibrating, then car shutting down when coming to a stop
It does not sound like a starter problem to me, nor battery, except if there was a major short of some kind. Now on an electrical short, it can't really be mistaken if all that smoke was indeed from wire insulations melting. The smell should be very noticeable if an electrical short caused such amounts of smoke.

The vibrating brake pedal tells me that you should look into the abs/braking system, make sure nothing happened. Smoke could be from brake fluid squirting into the hot engine if a line burst or anything along those lines.
Do a visual inspection before trying to force your car to start. Also check for any stored codes on the ECM, via a scanner. If something major malfunctioned, you should get some indication.

 

Check the voltage on the battery when sitting. Also, check it when somebody tries to crank it.

If the voltage got low enough, it could have caused a lot of systems to malfunction. Let us know what the voltage is.

If the voltage is not low, then I have my little bit of money on a massive short... perhaps in the alternator or starter.

 

Oh, check your battery connections too. It is possible that the new batter was not installed right... although that does not explain the smoke.

 

Yeah I'm still a little puzzled with the brake pedal vibration... maybe your sister got scared when she heard the grinding that she slammed on the brakes enough to set off the ABS??.

Also I've been thinking about it, ABS is controlled electronically so if there was a short somewhere it might have messed with it, but then again, you would definitely smell it if it was a short and there was smoke...

But go one thing at a time, start with the easiest of things and continue from there.. Looking at this, seems like it's a serious problem, and maybe taking it to a mechanic would be your best bet. Preferable a mechanic you trust, that can look at it and tell you whats wrong without trying to rob you as soon as you get there..

 

i checked the car yesterday. hooked up jumper cables but it did not start. I left it hooked to the other car for about 10 minutes then tried to jump it. When we tried to start it the power still goes out completely but i heard the engine click. It sounded like it was engaging but could not turn the engine.

 

Check the battery connections. Take them off, clean them and re-tighten - do this even if they look OK.

If this does not work, then get it to a shop.

 

^yea its the battery , i had the same problem before , i got a new battery from optima and everything was good

 

Yeah start with the battery. First, clean the connectors on the cables. If they're oxidized, you might want to take some sand paper (around 120 grit) and just sand the insides of the connectors until they're nice, clean and bright silver. Then install a new battery.