Electric vehicles don't have a starter for you to worry about, which means that as long as your car is charged, it will turn on every single time you push the button. They have their own problems, too, but it could be worse. Especially since EVs also don't have complicated engines under the hood, alternators, fuel lines or fuel pumps, all of which significantly reduce the chances you'll break down on the side of the road.
That's good for your wallet and your stress levels, but on the other hand, it means newer drivers will have far fewer stories about that time they fixed a broken-down car or figured out how to get one running again. Sure, you may have been incredibly frustrated at the time, but if you got a stalled car started again, you deserve to be proud of yourself.
On Tuesday, we asked you for your best stories about starting dead cars, and in perhaps the least-surprising development ever, it turns out, our readers have all sorts of stories about the ways they managed to get dead cars started again. Let's take a look at some of the most popular responses.
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I was in a state park about 30 minutes outside of town, listening to the radio and enjoying the day in my 88 Mustang. I decided it was time to head home and tried to crank the car. The accessories had drained the battery and while it wanted to start, it just didn't quite have enough juice. The car was automatic, so there was no push start option. I had a couple basic hand tools in the car. I used an adjustable crescent to remove the accessory drive belt and used the belt to spin the alternator by hand for several minutes before putting it back in place. That charged the battery just enough to get the engine to turn over and allowed me to head home.
Suggested by: Brian Huff
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While I was in college I had a 1966 Austin Healey Sprite, my brother had '68. His car would start on cold days and mine wouldn't, if I left it overnight and the temp was under 20 degrees it was whhrr, whhrrrr, dead.
So the '68 was used to jump the '66 on a regular basis (who said British cars weren't reliable?).
One morning when I did this I parked the cars very close together. So close that the bumpers scraped when I got in and out of either car. After I hooked up the cables I went and sat in my car, the bumpers touched and there was a very impressive display of sparks.
They didn't make many changes to the Sprites over the years, but in '68 the cars went to negative ground like the rest of the world, my old Sprite was positive earth as the British would say. Learned a little bit about the principles of electricity that day.
When my brother's car wasn't around I would roll start the car by myself in the alley behind the house (benefits of having a tiny car, push from the side, jump in, start. Problem was it was cold and icy and I slipped as the car continued on down the hill. Luckily I was young and quick, recoverd and jumped in before it hit anything.
Suggested by: Greg Lemon
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You can roll start an older Mercedes-Benz with an automatic, but you need to be going at least 30mph to do it.
I used to work for a Mercedes-Benz restorer, and on more than one occasion we towed a W108 sedan up to 35 then dropped it in drive to start it – but it was always really nerve racking!
Suggested by: Rapchat
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The truck I learned to drive (1946 chev) would not start if hot. I had a choice, park on a hill or wait for the engine to cool. If/when those options were not available I had a rope and a bumper jack. Jack up the rear till a tire was free, wrap rope around tire, put truck in gear..... and pull rope.
Suggested by: Ralph
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I had a 1960 MGA coupe back in the mid 80's. As you might expect from a British car of that era, the starter motor failed to engage one day when I was in a gas station. I was the only customer and the attendant wouldn't come out to help push. Fortunately, I remembered that the MGA came from the factory with a hand crank. There's a nice access hole in the front bumper lined up with the engine. So I pulled out the hand crank, turned on the ignition, put it in neutral and gave it a try. Fortunately for me I had taken a "Model T driving experience" at a car museum a few years earlier where they showed everyone how to properly crank start a car without risk of breaking your thumbs. My MGA started on the first pull. I had to hand crank the car for weeks after that before I could repair the starter motor. When warm, it was easy and would usually start on one pull. But the first start of the day was really difficult. I'd try to park on a hill overnight and roll start in the mornings. It still amazes me that there were cars in the '60s that came with a hand crank.
Suggested by: OrangePenguin
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Water Displacement formula 40 was my friend.
The worst example was during a torrential downpour. I was out in my parent's 1982 New Yorker, waiting at an advanced green when the car died. The light turned, the honking started, and I had to get out and open the hood. It took all of 3 seconds to be soaked. There wasn't an obvious problem, so I opened the trunk too. My father always seemed to have Chryslers, and they all like to die in the rain, so I guessed: WD-40 all over the place and cross my fingers. It worked ... after a thorough drenching, I got the car started again.
Suggested by: dolsh
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My 4th gen Celica GTS has the starter under the exhaust manifold meaning it could get heat soaked and not work. Normally letting it sit for a bit was enough, but a 90+ degree day meant it wasn't going anywhere as the regular Sunday cars and coffee wound down. The road out front was dead flat, but it had a middle-turn lane so I got the car pushed out into it at which point a number of people ran out to help get it moving and fired up (someone even snagged a pic and posted it on our local FB group). Gotta love car folks! After that event, I wrapped the starter in a heat blanket and got the exhaust manifold Cerakoted – haven't had a problem since.
Suggested by: Sean Curry
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My first car was a '77 Spitfire. I was trying to drive from home in Dallas to school in Austin in the middle of the night. On the highway, the car stalled and I coasted to the side of the road. I tried bump starting it a few times while it was still rolling and it didn't work. I tried starting it with the key after I had rolled to a stop a couple of times. Then I put on my hazards and tried to figure out what to do. I didn't have AAA and I was broke and this was '92 I didn't have a cell phone. I tried again to start it and it fired up. I got back on the highway and turned off the hazards and about a minute later it stalled again, went through the same routine. After the 4th cycle of this I didn't even bother turning my hazards off. After a couple of minutes of it running just fine, I turned the hazards off and in less than a minute it stalled again. I drove with the hazards on all the way to Austin. For some reason the aftermarket electric fuel pump broke and would only run when the hazard lights were on. I never figured out why but the new pump ran just fine.
Suggested by: epochellipse
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Started via cell phone. My coworkers and I went to a club in SF. Shortly after leaving one of them calls me and says her Monte Carlo Dale Earnhardt Edition wouldn't start. I said "Try this. Hold the break, turn the ignition to the on position (don't turn to start), put the shifter into neutral, turn the key to start." I heard the car start and she screams, "HOW DID YOU KNOW HOW TO DO THAT?!" She went home. I was king in the office Monday thanks to a bad neutral switch.
Suggested by: Anthony Chan
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The starter motor in my '62 Falcon died, and the local parts store couldn't get a new one in until next week .. since it was my only car at the time, I had no option but to compression start it until the new starter arrived .. most of the time, I'd pre-plan my exit by parking on a slight grade, or somewhere where I'd have enough room to roll a few feet .. luckily the car was light, and so well tuned, that I could literally stick my left foot out the door, give it a push-off, and start up Fred Flintstone style... not just once, but for an entire week... got pretty good at it..
Suggested by: JCB
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(Not) starting a vintage Triumph with the help of the local Harley Davidson club
Happened 20 years ago. My wife and I had borrowed my father's old Triumph Herald and went for a nice weekend in Spa (yes, the city near the F1 track in Belgium). After some time in the thermal baths (yes, it's where the word 'spa' comes from) we went to the city center for lunch then wanted to head back home. The car wouldn't start.
My parents were away from home and had no cell phone at the time. So we tried to pushstart the old lady... Picture me pushing the car while my wife tried to start the engine, in the beautiful and quite posh city center, until we reached the lowest point, popped the hood open and stood there, ackwardly parked in front of a pub.
This pub happened to be the meeting point of the local Harley Davidson club. Five minutes later, I could not see the engine because of 5 big guys in leather bent over it. They talked loud, tried lots of stuff but achieved nothing.
I called the number on the insurance documents found in the car. The guy from the call center could not find me in his listing. But, he said, this could happen with old timers, so he sent a tow truck to carry us and the car to my parents home, 100 miles from there.
Last twist : the next day, my father told me he had switched insurances a few weeks earlier and forgot to change the documents in the glovebox... So I had unknowingly scammed an insurance company into towing me back home for free !
Suggested by: qatbot
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I was in Myrtle Beach for a bachelor party around 2008-ish. One (very hungover) morning the neighbor came over and complained that his first-gen Range Rover wouldn't start and that he just had a new battery installed. I was the only one in our group with any sort of mechanical inclination, so I headed over to take a look. Everyone followed. It was immediately clear that the sound was the starter getting bound up. So I asked if he had a long, preferably metal pole, and a hammer. Everyone looked at me like I was still drunk, which wasn't a total lie. I proceeded to crawl under the front of the truck shirtless with a crow bar and a hammer. I lined up the end of the crowbar on the chassis of the starter and started tapping the other side with the hammer as I instructed the owner to attempt to turn it over. Fired right up. You can only imagine the sound of the crowd afterwards.
Suggested by: Channing Lyon
