Right, fitted a stereo last weekend and the car wont start now! The head unit is the same as before but I fitted two amps in the boot, running two powerleads straight from the battery. Since this point the car wont turn over.

It will jump start and it will bump start.
There is 12.5volts across the battery
There are no fuses blown in the fuse box.

When I turn the key all the lights come on nice and bright and then there's a small thunk as the starter motor tries to engage and then nothing. This is not a meaty engaging thunk, just a small one. The dash lights are then dim.

Any ideas as my mates are getting fed up push starting me

Thanks Chris

Why would it start when it's jumped from another car?

Is there a way of testing a starter motor?

Cheers

It won't be the starter if it will turn over fine when given power from another car...

For whatever reason your battery is not providing the correct current to the starter to enable it to engage and start to turn. A stalled motor takes a very high current to start to turn. If you have your ICE system powering off the battery constantly then the battery will not have enough power left to turn the starter. However,when you connect another car's battery to it (which is running) you have a lot of current available and the starter has enough to turn...

I believe the problem you have is caused by the fact your amps in the boots are powered directly from the battery. Try putting them on a switch, so you can switch them off before trying to start the car and I suspect your issue will disappear.

________________________________________

"Supercharged - 454.1bhp/317.5lb/ft"
Peugeot 306 GTi-6
2000 (X), Moonstone

Cheers guys.

Just went out and removed cable by cable from the amps and tried to start it after each, nothing. Removed the head unit and disconnected the amp remote ( which fires up the amps when the HU is turned on), nothing. Disconnected the main fuses in the power leads to the amps so that there is now nothing new running on the car. Nothing.

Now it gets weird. I put the meter across the battery and had 12v. Put it on the windscreen so I could see it as I turned the ignition switch to do the drop test, turned the key and bugger me if it didn't start!!!

Reconected leads one at a time to see if I could identify a dodgy lead, and everything is fine. It started first time, every time ( the battery started the car about 15 times in a row so I'm guessing it's good)

Not quite confident to leave the jump leads behind, but things seam to be sorted.

Thanks for your help.

Exactly my thoughts after the above post.

________________________________________

"Supercharged - 454.1bhp/317.5lb/ft"
Peugeot 306 GTi-6
2000 (X), Moonstone