Story time...

Today I was working on a friend's 2012 Ford Fiesta. Did all four corners regarding brakes (pads/rotors/calipers/drums), replaced the muffler and resonator assembly, and replaced the defective stock radio.

So I got it all put back together, and the damn thing wouldn't turn over. Checked all the connections to the battery, to the starter (looked rusty, but cleaned them up/tightened), fuses, relays, etc, etc. Had the friend get in and turn the key while I smacked the heck out of the starter. No dice. I was thinking, well maybe it's the radio we got from the junkyard playing games with the anti-theft system. So I hooked up my scanner and checked to see if I was getting indication that I was getting past that, and I was. I was going to jump the starter, but I was like, it can't be that... After much of me spinning my wheels, I told them I had enough. I put all day into this thing, and now it's stuck in my shop. They felt very, very, very bad. They knew I put a lot of time into it.

Anyhow, they have AAA, and I told them to call AAA and tow it to a garage that I recommend. They did, and the tow driver showed up. The driver got it on the self-loader and the driver and I went through all my troubleshooting. They asked if I jumped the starter and I told them that's the only thing I didn't do, even though I had a gut feeling it might've worked. We'll... guess what... jumping the starter got it running...

So I drove it back into my shop and took off the starter and we went out and bought a new one and got the old Fiesta back working.

Goes to show you, that you should always trust your gut instinct.

I felt like such a freakin' moron and I wasted an hour of my time waiting for the tow driver to do something I was going to do initially.

The tow driver said I work too hard and this stuff happens.

Ugh...

 

You have to be patient and determined to be a good mechanic I think. Anyhow, congratulations for getting it worked out. It helps sometimes to get input from someone else.

 

Its always something tho....

I know it isnt applicable in your case, but from my experience the hardest thing to diagnose is a [bad] new part you just installed. makes you second guess your original diag, and second guess all your life decisions that led up to this point

 

Yeah, I have a lot of patience, but I should've split it up into two days. Doing things that really should require two people, by oneself adds more to the challenge. Also having the second set of knowledgeable eyes and persistence helped.

One thing I might add to this scenario, is that the Ford Fiesta in the 2012 and around that model year had a bunch of electrical issues. The owner never got the fusebox replaced under Ford's recall, and there is corrosion. So when this happened, I also thought of that too.

Oh, and I've been there done that with bad parts. Seems like my common denominator has always been bad alternators in my years.

 

Never forget to trust your instincts. It has saved me from trouble so many times.