“The car won’t start.” It’s a common gripe for a customer to report to a mechanic when they drop off their problematic wheels. However, you don’t often hear about a car that won’t start aside from occasionally popping the trunk to get it running right. One Georgia mechanic was saddled with just that situation after a Dodge Dart rolled into his shop with odd little quirks and none of the usual suspects like a flat battery or faulty starter. 

This car won’t start unless you pop the trunk. Or until you feed it a simple, one-dollar fix

A mechanic’s shop in Georgia was perplexed by a 2015 Dodge Dart. At a glance, it’s nothing out of the ordinary. A typical Dart with a 2.4L engine under the hood. However, this car refused to start, and when it did, it ran poorly. That is, aside from the times that popping the trunk allowed the Dart to fire up and run. 

But the mystery of the car that won’t start only got murkier from there. “It’s been to three or four different shops,” the mechanic said. A few of those were dealership service centers. During its shop visits, the Dart received a new starter and a new battery. But alas, the transplants didn’t give the 10-year-old Dodge sedan a new lease on life.

“Sometimes she has to pop the trunk to get the engine to start,” the mechanic said of the mystery. That’s when the mechanic explained what he did to ensure the Dart doesn’t return with another “the car didn’t start” complaint. “Did a system scan, found about seven codes on the Engine Control Module,” he told his colleague. 

After digging into the scan and the most pressing ECM code, the mechanic discovered that many of the ECM components are fed through one specific fuse. At last, a clue in a seemingly unsolvable Dodge Dart mystery. He pulled the fuse, and while it looked like it had been exposed to some heat, it wasn’t blown. It doesn’t explain why the car won’t start at times. 

However, he tightened the connections in the fuse box and installed a new fuse in the old hot unit’s place. Eureka! The little car growled to life, this time sounding much healthier. All for the want of a one-dollar fuse. 

As for the popped trunk, some mysteries are more difficult than others. The seasoned mechanic had no idea why the periodically popped boot was enough to coax a little life into the Dodge Dart. He speculated that the trunk could somehow impact the flow of electricity within the car when it’s open. Either way, the fuse fix seemed to do the trick, trunk opened or closed.