Ok, you pack your lunch, grab your briefcase, pour your coffee into your shiny travel mug, get in your car and UH-OH - Click-Click. Your day just got ruined...Well almost, if you keep your cool and follow these steps you may be able to get yourself back on the road!

Step 1 - It may be good to draw yourself a tree...no..not draw yourself as a tree...but draw a troubleshooting tree to give yourself some direction through the process. Start the first two branches with ENGINE TURNS OVER and ENGINE DOES NOT TURN OVER. This is very important. It will lead you to two separate paths.

ENGINE DOES NOT TURN OVER - This is either electrical...or...very bad news for you. The engine could be locked up which means you'd better get out the want-ads because your buying a new car or engine. Anyways, it's probably electrical, which means it is something with the starter circuit. This consists of:

Battery
Starter
Battery to Starter cable
Start circuit which is everything from the key to the neutral safety switch to the starter solenoid.

So...first check the battery. You can do this by just turning the headlights on, are they bright? If so it should be OK, you should also check it with a voltmeter. If you don't have one, don't worry. I'm sure cell phones will come with them in the next few years. Anyways, 12.6 volts is what you should have at the battery with no load. When you turn the key to the start position, the voltage should not go below 10. If it does, you have a dead battery.

Next step check the starter and the solenoid - this is an easy check that most people don't do. Since I don't know what you drive, use this as a general guide...there will be two wires, 1 big and 1 small the big wire is for the starter and the small wire is for the solenoid. The big wire should have 12 volts on it at all times and the small wire should have 12 volts only WHEN you turn the key to start. Got it? Good! If you've got voltage Hey! You've solved the case! Buy a new starter.

If you didn't have voltage at the starter, you have a wiring problem, but before you dig into the schematics check for the obvious first:
Is the car in gear? It will only start in Neutral or Park, or if it's a manual, with the clutch depressed. (Don't laugh, I've seen this happen so many times it's not even funny.)
Check for loose battery cables or if you have an alarm system check it. It might have tripped something. Wiring problems can be tough to solve so at this point

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