OT Next door neighbours car did not start this morning

[ARW]

Now what could I have done to cause this problem?

Think like my brain sometimes does - and Homer Simpson is my hero.

[Jeff Gaines]

I was asked by a neighbour to give her a jump start and she was offended when I refused. I have a Suzuki Vitara and the handbook says don't give jump starts to other cars. Is this because of possible damage to electronic components?

[Tim Lamb]

In message <tt0p55$sbaf$ [e-mail], ARW [e-mail]> writes

A potato stuffed up the exhaust is the agricultural answer to vehicles parked inconsiderately.

After experiencing the myriad ways my vehicle system checks before allowing the starter motor to engage, I guess something electrical:-)

[Thomas Prufer]

Naah. Peed in the tank.

Homer: "Everyone pees in the shower!" Marge: "Most people only do it when they are in the shower..."

Thomas Prufer

[R D S]

Doughnut up the chuff pipe?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Shoved a potato up his exhaust pipe

[Owain Lastname]

Did you switch the order of the HT leads on his spark plugs?

Owain

[Simon Ferrol]

In the good old times, a bit of sugar in the tank.

ARW:

[Max Demian]

When I had a Honda CB175 someone (probably at work) tried to sabotage it by putting paper in the spark plug connections; I only found out when I next checked the plugs and found some charred paper there, which shows how good it was.

[Brian Gaff]

Are you suggesting he blames you? Brian

[Brian Gaff]

You can now buy some very compact batteries that can be used for this purpose. No idea how they work though. Brian

[Rod Speed]

Brian Gaff [e-mail] wrote

He should because Adam deliberately sabotaged it.

[Colin Bignell]

It is probably about 50 years since I drove a car without a locking filler cap or, latterly, a locking flap over it.

[Andy Burns]

Locking flaps seem pretty flimsy to me, they might suffer a bit of damage being pried open, but do you inspect yours before every journey?

[Colin Bignell]

I always walk around the car, checking tyre inflation visually, looking for any damage that might have happened when parked, cleaning the rear view camera lens and checking there is no debris caught in any window wiper, before I get into the car.

[Simon Ferrol]

But you're not a woman.

Col>> Col>>

[Thomas Prufer]

Sugar in the tank does no significant damage in this video:

to an admittedly simple engine -- though this might be a good stand-in for the engines that were said to have been sabotaged by sugar in the tank in WWII.

Not saying that a fuel-injected modern car would like sugar, just saying it's not a bad/good as one might think.

Thomas Prufer

[Colin Bignell]

Not last time I looked.

[SteveW]

They don't open the cap and syphon it off these days anyway. They drill a hole in the (usually plastic) tank and catch it as it pours out.

[Rod Speed]

I mostly do when leaving first thing in the day but don't otherwise.

I never do that, essentially because is very unlikely to be damaged where its parked at home other than massive damage from a tree or branch falling on it which would be hard to miss.

Never do that when coming back to the parked car when its parked other than at home.

Don't have one.

That happens so rarely that its no big deal when I notice it once in the car.

I never check if the petrol filler flap has been levered open and I would normally notice if it had without explicitly checking unless I am going out in the dark.