HELP, my car is completely DEAD!!!

[ka0sx]

sail,even though it says it in the manual not to, it will not hurt the car if done right if necessity calls.

[Sir A.Y. Atoyot]

Originally Posted by ka0sx

sail,even though it says it in the manual not to, it will not hurt the car if done right if necessity calls.

Actually, when the battery is thoroughly dead, you can't start it by pushing or pulling anyway. The alternator requires a little tiny bit of juice (called excitation current) in order to charge. When the battery is really dead, that juice is not forthcoming, so no power is produced by the alternator to charge the battery, run the ignition, computers, etc. The best solution is to put a battery charger on it for a few hours - if you can't get AC electricity to the car as it sits, take the battery out and charge it somewhere else.

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by ka0sx

sail,even though it says it in the manual not to, it will not hurt the car if done right if necessity calls.

yeah.... there was a thread about this a long time ago... nobody had ever had issues with it, or could even come up with a reason as to why it would be a problem if you do it properly.

I've started my car while rolling probably 100 times.... no problems yet. Never had to push start... but I've done a lil hypermiling where I cut the engine, then put the ignition back to acc so I had steering and brakes. I don't do it anymore... but, it appears to be fine.

The only vehicle I had a bad alt in was my 86 Jeep Cherokee. The mazda had no problems... course, after it was 5 years old I put in a 160amp alt... but I had that alt running in the car for five years. I'm not too scared about an alt going bad in the yaris... isn't it rated 80amps? 80 is decent for a car.... I remember the civics had 60amp... I can't imagine a CRX having anything more than that. I'm not a big fan of honda when it comes to the electrical systems. Subaru is pretty cool tho.

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by talnlnky

yeah.... there was a thread about this a long time ago... nobody had ever had issues with it, or could even come up with a reason as to why it would be a problem if you do it properly.

I've started my car while rolling probably 100 times.... no problems yet. Never had to push start... but I've done a lil hypermiling where I cut the engine, then put the ignition back to acc so I had steering and brakes. I don't do it anymore... but, it appears to be fine.

The only vehicle I had a bad alt in was my 86 Jeep Cherokee. The mazda had no problems... course, after it was 5 years old I put in a 160amp alt... but I had that alt running in the car for five years. I'm not too scared about an alt going bad in the yaris... isn't it rated 80amps? 80 is decent for a car.... I remember the civics had 60amp... I can't imagine a CRX having anything more than that. I'm not a big fan of honda when it comes to the electrical systems. Subaru is pretty cool tho.

When you push start with carb equipped cars it tends to dump fuel into the motor, causing the catalytic converter to fry. Not sure about FI cars.

I don't know the alternator rating on a Yaris. DO know that my CRX ate four alternators over the course of 200,000 miles or so.

Gene

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by GeneW

When you push start with carb equipped cars it tends to dump fuel into the motor, causing the catalytic converter to fry. Not sure about FI cars.

I don't know the alternator rating on a Yaris. DO know that my CRX ate four alternators over the course of 200,000 miles or so.

Gene

hmmm... push started the jeep I had prolly half a dozen times (it was carb)... sold it with 186,000 miles on it... never had to replace the cat....


I dunno... I think people make too big of a deal about push starting