Frozen 560sel
 

Minus 20 this morning and tried to start the car with the remote start unit (aftermarket). marker lights came on to signal attempt and then flashed to signal failure. Went out to do it the old fashioned way and got nothing when i turned the key in the ignition. Noticed that the dome light didn't come on either so I popped the hood and pressed the reset button in front of the battery but still got no result.
Not being satisfied with a simple problem, I proceeded to compound it by trying a jump from my 190e that was already running.
Upon hooking up the connection, my engine began to slowly turn with no evidence of firing even though I hadn't put in the key. The 190 then stalled and would not retart.
There appears to be lots of power in the battery, it's just not getting where it's needed.

any ideas?

bump
 

bump

What weight oil is in it?
Was it plugged in?
Do you have a battery blanket?
If the motor started to turn over when you jumped it without the key in - sounds like the aftermarket control is still stuck in start mode - if it is and was trying to turn the motor over orginally - it pumped current through the battery like mad. At -20 a discharged battery can freeze in a couple of hours making it toast. Try to get the remote start to disengage and slap a charger on your battery while you are waiting because if your battery was drained by the remote start it will freeze shortly unless you get a charge back into it. Remember that a fully charged battery has less than 50% of it's cranking amps at -20 a battery blanket will keep it warm and give the battery maximum cranking power. Here on the prairies - 10w30 is too thick for an engine not plugged in to turn over very fast at -20 - 5w-30 or similar makes turning the motor over easier. Keep us posted.
Morris - in freezing Manitoba

moedip
 

Unfortunately, all electrical (everything) stopped working immediately, like some giant short-out or breaker switch tripped... not even a dome lite works.

Thanks for the info on the oil/battery/block heater... will see what i can do at the indie's shop once it gets there.

Not sure about MB's, but some vehicles I had in the past whould exhibit this "totally dead" symptom when (in that case due to damaged teeth on the flywheel) the solenoid would get stuck with the starter gear in the extended position. On those stick shift cars, the fix was pushing the car backwards about a foot while in gear (which turned the flywheel the right direction to "screw" the starter gear back into its retracted position). Don't think you'd have the same "stuck extended" problem, but if you've got juice at the battery itself, the solenoid might be the culprit in some other way.

Good luck. We California natives don't know from 20 below.

starters and cold weather
 

Last winter my dad had to get the car towed twice in a week to get the starter replaced. Two starters failed in cold weather, make sure that you got the right coolant mixture, if there is too much water it will freeze causing extra friction on the starter. Im my dads case, it was two weak starters that couldn't turn the engine, you just heard the solenoid click.

It was a 94 plymouth Acclaim.

xp

If the battery died while trying to remote start, there are various reasons why it could be still hooked to the starter. If this is the case it will closely resemble a short. Compared to the rest of the car the starter resembles a short. Calculate the resistance of a 12v circuit handling 250amps and you will see that the resistance calculated (V = IR, voltage equals current times resistance, so R = V/I) is close enough to zero to seem like a short to a weak battery.

followup & resolution
 

After getting towed to the shop, CMcN listened to my explanation and thought it may be that the circuit for the remote start was "jammed" open, so to speak.

Hooking up a battery charger, it was evident that there was a large power draing happening, however, there was enough juice to drive some low level electricals. I used the remote start to kill the previous start command and that solved the problem.

We could actually hear the "load" hum drop right off from the charger when the start command was killed.

towing and shop charges = tuition :D

Many thanks for all your replies. Super forum. :cool:

I might point out that "open" means you have NO circuit. "closed" or shorted would be the more appropriate term for a circuit using current in any quantity.

People often refer to circuits that don't work as possibly having a short. Unless they are on fire the real term for an inoperative circuit would be a possible open.

Open
 

A poor choice of words on my part :o

Thanks again. :)