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in accident... HIDs cause car not to start?

1K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  furryferret7888 
#1 ·
i was in an accident last night. without getting too into it *long story* some lady flew out of her driveway in reverse as i was driving by and rammed the rear passenger side of my car. after statements and police and all that, drove home, stopped at 7-11 along the way. went to start my car, and nothing. when i say nothing, i mean not enough power to start, interior lights worked fine and instrument panel lights, but no crank. got a jump from my dad, drove home, and same thing last night and this morning, no power. since i took the hit in the rear passenger side, it doesnt make much sense to me that the battery died for no reason. can the HIDs be causing this? this has never happened before; i've left them on for a while on purpose with the car off and no issues, but after this accident, no power... any ideas? should i be worried enough to pull the lights out for now?
 
#6 · (Edited)
Dumb question but are you sure that the batt terminals are both tight. When it cranks is it strong or very slow and barely enough to turn the engine w/o a jump start? Was the impact in the accident strong enough to jar things loose? Have you had the batt disconnected recently and perhaps the cable there is loose? When jump starting is it very strong and like there's no problem at all? I guess it's possible that there's a shorted wire somewhere under the dent from the accident that could kill the batt but I'd think fuses would eliminate that circuit and this wouldn't be a prob. I can't think of a ground in that area which if broken would keep the car from starting.

I'm not sure that a "ground somewhere" would cause this problem but a lack of ground (or +) is more like it if it's not the batt or the starter (don't think it's this though if it starts fine with a jump).
 
#7 ·
well i took out the HID kit to be safe, retightened everything, lights up fine, but cranks slowly once, then dies when i try to start it. this really sucks; i know its nothing i did, and it was working fine all day and forever for that matter, never had battery issues, but the other insurance doesnt want to give me a rental cause they say with a hit to the rear, it wouldn't cause the car to not start so "it must be you" they tell me... man this is rediculous... now i have no car :Mad: :(
 
#9 ·
RMZ, I know it sounds crazy but it almost sounds like the battery isn't holding a charge. When driving and turning off the car will it start right up again no problem and then when left overnight it's dead again? Trying to see if there's something draining the batt while it's sitting. For shits and giggles if you want, take out the batt from another car and drop it in and try it. OR, charge yours overnight if you have a charger and then it should crank no prob after a few hours or less. If so, it would mean that the batt is good and then alternator isn't supplying enough charging current to the batt. One thing to look at is when the car is running after being jumped everything is running great I guess. A flat out dead alternator will cause the car to sputter when driving (not enough power to run the lights, etc while trying to charge the batt).
 
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