In this week’s mailbag, I received a frantic e-mail from a young female reader that asked the following.

I’m writing today because I found out this morning that I went to start my car, but it won’t start.  Instead, it’s just making a clicking noise!  What am I supposed to do?

First off, don’t worry.  This happens to just about everyone that has owned a car in their lifetime.  Every result is going to vary, but there are a few things that you can do right now in order to get your car up, and running.

Jump start your car: The car most likely has a battery with no charge.  Did you leave your lights on?  Did you have a very cold night before?  If you think this may be the problem, find a car that’s running, and grab some jumper cables.  You will want to jump start the car.  Allow the car to run for a few minutes, and see if the car starts up.

Look into your starter: If jumped your car, and it’s still not working, you may want to look into your starter.  These are relatively easy / hard to install depending on your make, and model.  If you don’t know how to install one, I would highly recommend that you head down to an auto repair shop.

These 2 problems are generally 95% of the problems that you’re going to encounter when your car won’t start, and it’s making a clicking noise.  I would highly recommend that you take it into a repair shop, if you can’t get it to start.   Most repair shops will come, diagnosis it right at your home, and you can go from there.