My wife and I own a 2007 ls Outlander awd. We dove ityestreday and it worked fine. Normally it is garage kept but we left it outside last night. 10-15 mm of rain with high winds then about 3-5 cm of snow. I moved it inside the garage this morning....no problems.
My wife tried to go and pick our daughter up from day-care this afternoon and the vehicle would not start. The lights all work.
The starter seems to be working. When you crank it there is a noise (not a grinding, more of a whirring)
There is gas in the vehicle. There is no CES or SES yellow light on with the key in the on position. It does appear when you first put the key in but it goes out.

What is the difference between the sound the starter makes the sound the fuel pump makes???....maybe the starter is bad?
Maybe something got wet ?? What should I check before requesting a tow to my local garage? (the dealership is 5 hrs away)
Thanks for any help or suggestions.
p.s. ....on the brighter side the filler neck for my eclipse came in today so I can get that fixed.

 

had similar situation, although I had a different car. Drove to a grocery store. Come back to a car 15 mins later. It will not start. No, the lights weren't left on. Called AAA. The guy did a check of the battery and said it's fine and something else is wrong with it. Tow it to dealer. Dealer does checks and figure out it was indeed bad battery which just died Although, symptoms were strange.
Anyway, I would say it's something electrical... immobolizer, battery..

 

in 2007 and 2008 mitsu had a batch of bum relay's which were air tight. the problem was that they did not allow for venting of moisture condensate. there was a TSB released (in canada at least) to have the relays replaced with a venting style.
the problem associated was exactly what you are describing.

 

one of these relays happens to be the starter relay. warranty coverage is 5years 60,000 miles

 

The TSB for this problem has been discussed on this forum and I do not agree with Mitsubishi only fixing this problem on outties sold or registered in cold weather areas.

I live in Phoenix which is in the Sonoran desert so its never going to get cold enough here for this problem to occur. But just two hours away up Interstate 17is Flagstaff (7,000 ft elevation) which gets plenty of snow and it can get cold enough there for this to be a problem. I am notinto snow skiing but its certaintly possible another outtie owner in Phoenix who enjoys skiing may make regular winter trips to Flagstaff and it would be dumb for them to get stuck up there with a car that doesn't start for a problem that easily could have been fixed.

 

Mitsubishi only fixes the problem on cars thathave a problem.If your vehicle was towed in as a no start and showed signs of intermittent relay failure it would be repaired.
It dosen't matter where the car was sold or where it was registered. Has your car experienced a no start situation?

 

NoI haven't experienced a no start and to be honest the chances of me;

1. Going somewhere in the winter where its cold enough for the problem to occur (below zero).
2.Driving the car for a short period of time, then turning it off.
3. There beingheavy enough moisture in the air for the condensation to freeze and cause the no start condition.

is very remote. I understand from a financial standpoint why mitsu and for that matter most auto manufactures would notperform the fix unless a no startoccurs. Three specific things have to occur for a no start condition, and even persons who live in cold weather areasmay never have the problem. Still I think if its a known problem it should be fixedbefore it may occur. Just my humble opinion.

 

Well we had it towed to a local garage. The dealer is 5 hrs away. They looked at it and it wouldn't start. The battery was O.K. No leaks or anything, gas was fine. One of the mechanics then suggested putting the key in the ignition and just waiting a minute before cranking. It started no problem. They think the vehicle may have immobilized itself for some reason. They don't know for sure but we will keep an eye on it and report any other occurances. The dealer mechanics wouldn't say too much since they didn't see it themselves.

 

With all due respect, I think you need to understand why Mitsu or any manufacturerissues TSBs. They are not about disclosing known problems as much as they explain to a technician
known repairs. Just as people from all over come to this forum looking for answers from someone who has already been through there troubles, Technicians use TSBs to help repair a vehicle
correctly the first time. Do you know how many hair folicles must have been lost by technicians trying to diagnose why a car has been back 3 times for a no start and every time it gets towed
in it starts right up as soon as it hits the lot? I'm sure it put a few Barber shops out of business. Believe me these cars can be hard to fix at times. We just got done with a lancer that ate
our lunch for a few weeks. The battery kept going dead and everytime we would get the car here we go through all the normal tests and it would be fine. Sofar the only cars to have these
symtoms were cars with LoJack installed. Wellit took a few days just to find out the car doesn't have LoJack (all that info is top secret and you need to be Obama to have the proper clearance). Well we finally fix the car but now we have a rather expensive warranty claim with two tow bills and some really upset customers who don't feel safe in there car no more....

Boy do I wish there was a TSB available.....anyways use these TSBs as tools to fix your car. Thats what they are for. Now I gotto go join the Hair club for men........lol

 

Thanks mitsupartsman and I think we are all fortunate to have you as part of this forum. I agree the worst type of vehicleproblem to have are the ones that can not be reproduced at the repair shop. You can spend a small fortune just trying to diagnose the problem and still have no assurances it will be fixed.