[Franno83]

Wondering if anyone has thoughts on my MG3 not starting. Put a new battery in and it was ok for a few days then failed to start again. Battery has retained charge ok. At the 2nd ignition click all the interior check lights come on but on the 3rd click everything goes dead. Any suggestions would be appreciated. It's a 2015 model. Thank you.

 

[mattykan]

Wondering if anyone has thoughts on my MG3 not starting. Put a new battery in and it was ok for a few days then failed to start again. Battery has retained charge ok. At the 2nd ignition click all the interior check lights come on but on the 3rd click everything goes dead. Any suggestions would be appreciated. It's a 2015 model. Thank you.

Hi,

Welcome to the forum.

Does the car attempt to crank or does all power just go off at this stage?

It could be that the alternator wasn't charging the new battery and the only way to test this is to get someone to give your car a jump start and see if the car can start with either the second battery connected or a using car battery booster.

It could also be that something like the starter system is draining all power/short circuiting and this will need looking at.

Assuming that the new battery has the necessary cranking amps (given that it is new) then a prime suspect would be the electrical systems.

Cheers..

 

[Franno83]

Hello Matty, many thanks for replying. It doesn't crank at all. Goes completely dead, but battery is full of charge.

 

[gnu]

It could be the battery connections or earth strap needs to be checked/ cleaned. Don’t know the layout in the 3, but earth strap is probably on the slam panel under the front of the bonnet. There will be other straps i.e. near the starting motor etc.

 

[Franno83]

Thank you. Will have a look at that?

 

[gnu]

Remember to be careful with spanner’s around the battery terminals. Safer to disconnect the -ve first if working on the +ve connection.

 

[Panalex]

I had a similar problem but manage to jump start the car and it started by itself several times until now all electronics work but the screen shows the AMT as being in 1 no matter how I have the speed stick.

I also read about a pink cable and ground connection but nobody has been able to pinpoint where these cables are ...


Starting Problems
The most common starting problem is when it goes through all the preliminary starting sequence but then the starter motor fails to engage.
This is usually caused by a poor connection at the thin PINK signal wire which connects via a spade terminal on the starter solenoid.
Try sliding the spade up and down a few times to improve the connection. Long term you need a new spade connector fitting or tighten the existing spade but this is a bit more tricky as not much space to work. There are other comments about this elsewhere in these blogs.