2002 Optima Will not start

Wlerine543 · 02-16-2008, 01:41 AM

To begin with a little back ground. This is a 2002 Optima 2.4L 5speed. We began working on it before Christmas, replacing the clutch. After several months later and a lot of disassembly and reassembly, we finally got everything put back together. Now we have a new problem. The car will not start, or for that matter will not even turn over. We have tried to jump it off and tried a new battery nothing seems that work. Heres is the fun part. We figured there was a short some where so we begin our hunt. Wiggling wires and making sure everything is connected. After that it proceeds to turn over and couple of time even 10 or 12 times then stops and will not respond. Any ideas what can be causing this?

Classic boy · 02-16-2008, 07:11 AM

Get some sandpaper and clean inside the battery terminal and the battery posts, apply a little grease on them to prevent a layer of oxide reforming.

Wlerine543 · 02-16-2008, 11:33 AM

Well good news and bad, we got it to start by beating on it. haha. Even when it is in neutral it says in gear. Any Idea?

PhonedZero · 02-16-2008, 12:02 PM

Sounds like your neutral safety switch maybe on the way out, or the starter itself.

dfwtxpatrick · 02-17-2008, 11:04 PM

Most likely your have your linkage out of wack, so your neutral saftey switch is causing the problem. Especially since you said it shows in gear when it is not.

Simply play w/ the linkage and you'll get it.

That is all!