Diagnostics
Car Won’t Start? We Come To It
Your car is not going anywhere, so we come to it. Driveway, office lot, apartment space or parking garage, we diagnose it where it sits instead of you paying for a tow first.
Your car is not going anywhere, so we come to it. Driveway, office lot, apartment space or parking garage, we diagnose it where it sits instead of you paying for a tow first.
A car that will not start is the exact scenario a mobile mechanic exists for. The conventional route costs you a tow, then shop labour, then a ride to go and collect it. We skip step one entirely and diagnose the car where it actually is, whether that is a driveway in Lake Nona, an office lot in Medical City or a parking garage downtown.
These are three different problems and they lead to three different places, so this is always the first question we answer:
An engine needs fuel, spark and compression, at the right time. We test for each rather than assuming:
Heat, mostly. Our climate is brutal on batteries, and a heat-degraded battery frequently dies without the slow warning a cold-climate battery gives you. It works fine on Tuesday and is dead on Wednesday. Beyond that we see corroded terminals and ground straps from humidity, failed fuel pumps, crankshaft position sensors that fail when hot and then work again once things cool, and starters that have simply worn out. Related reading: battery replacement and alternator and starter.
Most of it. Batteries, terminals, cables and grounds, starters, alternators, relays and fuses, ignition coils, plugs, and many sensors are all realistic roadside or driveway repairs. If the diagnosis turns out to be internal, a snapped timing belt or a failed fuel pump inside the tank on some vehicles, we will tell you plainly that it needs a shop, and you will at least be paying for a tow to the right place for the right reason instead of guessing.
Yes, as long as it is legal and safe for us to work there. Driveways, apartment and condo lots, office parking, and job sites are all routine. If a spot genuinely is not safe to work in, we will say so.
Most no-starts are fixed on site: batteries, starters, alternators, cables, relays, coils and sensors. Internal engine failures and in-tank fuel pumps on some vehicles need a shop, and we will tell you straight away rather than running up diagnostic time.
Florida heat is the reason. High ambient temperature accelerates the internal breakdown of a battery, and heat-killed batteries very often fail suddenly rather than fading gradually.
The starter is doing its job, so we are hunting fuel, spark, compression or timing. We test for each rather than replacing parts hopefully.
We can get you running, but a jump is a symptom fix. The useful part is finding out why it went flat, because if the alternator is not charging you will be stranded again the same day.
Oil, brakes, batteries, AC, diagnostics and no-starts, done in your driveway across Orlando, Lake Nona, St. Cloud and Kissimmee. Upfront price before we start.