I need some help troubleshooting an electrical problem that's preventing the car from starting, as I can't really afford to tow it unless it's absolutely necessary. I suspect it's a short or bad ground or fuse or something like that and may be easy enough for me to fix if I can just track it down.
I've checked the battery voltage and it's just fine (about 12.2 volts). Nothing works though. If I turn on the hazards, you can hear the relay clicking VERY rapidly in the inside fuse panel (but none of the lights blink). If you turn on the headlights, you can hear some sort of shorting/arcing noise coming from the fuse box under the hood (the one next to the battery). At no point do any dash indicators or any other lights come on. (Of course the dome light bulb is busted anyway so who knows if that's trying to come on ...)
If I try to start the car, you hear that shorting noise very briefly (again, sounds like it's coming from the underhood fuse panel) and then everything goes silent. The starter never even begins to crank.
I looked at most of the fuses and don't see any that are dead. I removed the fuse link for both the headlights and the tail lights (the big fuse links in the under hood fuse box) ... as that's right where the shorting sound appears to be coming from. When I try to turn on the headlights with either of those fuse links in place, it still shorts, but if both are removed, you don't hear the shorting noise. Since these big fuse links are all encased in opaque plastic I can't see if they're burned out or anything. If my car wasn't dead and it was easier to get to the auto parts store I'd just try swapping them out for the heck of it :)
Basically, I'm a newbie when it comes to cars but I have a good head on my shoulders and a desire to learn :) Just need to have a few pointers on where to start looking, as it's a little bit daunting. Does any of this sound familiar to anyone? Would there be a logical place to look or testing/troubleshooting proceedure based on these symptoms?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Chris