Google Search = Life Saver

Yesterday I was at work and received a call from my wife. She proceeded to tell me that the Jeep (Grand Cherokee) wouldn't start, but the battery seemed fine because the lights would come on without any problems. So during my lunch break I decided to look under the hood and try to figure out what the problem could be. Since I know nothing about cars, I didn't immediately see anything that caught my eye. Dreading the idea of getting the Jeep towed PLUS paying a mechanic to fix it, I decided to "Google it" first.

I fired up the laptop and typed "car won't start but lights come on" into the Google search field and hit Enter. Multiple sites showed up that were useful and the ones I checked mentioned some basic troubleshooting steps. The first couple of steps were ones that were already eliminated from being the source of the problem just from simple observation while attempting to start the Jeep. Then one step finally stood out and seemed like I should look into the possibility of battery connector corrosion as the burden. I immediately took back out into the garage, popped the hood, and lifted back the battery connector covers to see nothing but an abundance of messy corrosion built up around the connectors. Hope immediately filled me up as I came back to the laptop to see exactly how to proceed with handling corrosion build up on battery connectors. My newly acquired hope rested upon a very helpful article I found: http://www.howtocleanstuff.net/auto/mechanical/how-to-clean-car-battery-terminals/

It really was as easy as the "How to" article put it. Now that Shayla and I had done the battery clean up, it was time for the true test: put the keys in the ignition and try to fire up the engine. I let her do the honors. My nerves were on edge as she opened the door and sat in the driver's seat. Her hopeful eyes looked straight into mine as I nodded for her to give it a shot. She inserted the key into the ignition and twisted...

The engine roared to life! Excitement and relief consumed me as I realized the amount of money and headache we saved ourselves by doing one simple auto maintenance task. Tragedy avoided!