[zboot]

This morning, I went out to start my car to goto work and. . . nothing happened.

No clicking sound or attempts by the starter to do its job. No buzzing sound from the fuel pump. The only sound that could be detected was from the throttle body (once I got a couple friends from work to stop by and attempt to jump start the car).

Talking to a couple guys at work as well as doing a thorough search here all indicated that I was either looking at a bad battery (el cheapo fix) or a bad starter (or starter solenoid - potentially el expensivo fix).

However. . .

Everything else electrical runs fine - lights, radio, etc. I was able to do a rolling start (with the help of a neighbor) and got the car to Autozone (where I parked on an incline). The autozone tech came out w/ their battery tester - and declared that my battery was good. He posited that it could either be a nuetral switch problem or an ignition problem. He says he doesn't think it is a starter issue. (I'd told him at prior to this that I'd done a rolling start to get the car to Autozone).

I then informed him that the nuetral switch had been bypassed (ie I can start the car w/o having to depress the clutch). At that point he became really convinced that it was probably the issue. Informing him that the car has been that way for the past 3 years and has run fine until this morning did nothing to dampen his enthusiasm for that particular explanation.

This evening, I got a few looks under the dash - everything seemed ok but now that I think about it, I must have missed a few things. I saw a connector plugged into the clutch sensor housing that looked stock, but on second thought, that probably is what allows my cruise control to work properly w/ the clutch and I'd need to do some further looking to find the neutral switch.

So, it's probably about time that I acquire a bentley manual, but while I'm doing this, can someone describe what I need to look for to ID the switch and how is it typically bypassed. IE, if a jumper between two pins is the typical method and I notice that something fitting that description has come loose - that just might nip this in the bud.

Another related question - what's the easiest way for a single person (me) to rolling start his car on a almost flat parking lot. After I got back home today, I tried parking the car on the steepest incline available but could not successfully jump start the car. I know it is possible, because I did it earlier today - I think I'm being too hasty on the clutch. This is of especial importance because the parking lot at work has even less of an incline than the one at home and I can't think of any suitable places close to work that I could park and avoid being ticketed/towed at the same time.