So, after I left work today, I realized I forgot something, so I parked and went back in, but when I came back out, the car wouldn't start (even though it started up just fine only five minutes prior).

I got a loud ticking noise from the engine bay and, although I didn't notice this at first, after I had tried starting it a few times, the dash lights were flickering and even going out as I was trying to start it. Other than that, all lights/windows/horn/etc seemed to work just fine and didn't even appear to be dimmer than usual (except when I was twisting the key in the ignition).

I tried jumping it with another car, but that didn't work...

Now, when I arrived at work I was low on gas (gauge was red and said I had 8 miles to empty), so the thought occurred to me that my gauge was wrong and/or I didn't have enough juice to start the car. I was surprised by this (and since I can honestly say I'm not sure what it sounds like to try to start a car without enough gas), I tried adding some gas and that still didn't help.

Any other thoughts on what this could be before I have the car towed in to the dealership? Probably the starter? But I thought starter issues were usually a single click? Car has 65,000 miles. Never had any issues like this before, car usually fires right up.

 

Sounds like a bad battery to me. The other thing could be a bad ground or corosion on the terminals. But my bet is bad battery. Sometimes you can get a battery that is toast and if you try to jump start it, all the juice runs to the bad battery not allowing for a quick jump.

 

Yep, battery bad, you might also check the alternator, on my '06 it went out at 38K miles.

 

What year? What's your location? Sounds like battery and/or alternator, both of which are chronic problems with our S197's. Have both tested at Autozone or any other auto parts store.

If you get more than 2-3 years from the OE MotorCrap battery, consider yourself lucky. Southern heat will kill a battery faster than northern winters.

 

Once the gauge is red you are really on E!! My gauge was messed up but my gauge still went red on me. I denied it as the faulty gauge and a couple miles later it died and wouldn't start. Or it sounds like your battery most likely. If you have a loud clicking in the engine bay, most likely the starter solenoid. Not enough battery juice.

 

Same thing happened to me a week ago. Its a bad battery.