what.... the... fuck.... complete starter failure

[OreoGaborio]

ok... so i walk outta my buddy's place about 15 minutes ago... hop in my car... bitch won't start... battery's fine, everything looks ok, but there's absolutely no activity from the starter... no warning what so ever... didn't sound like it stayed engaged when i started it up before, didn't sound like it was dying, didn't take a while to start up or anything... just "POOF".... GONE

guess i'm gonna have to check the connections or something tomorrow :roll:

any other suggestions or possibilities for the failure?

[Jordan]

Solinoid shit the bed bro, bridge the terminals yourself... that is if you have the balls.

[OreoGaborio]

oh i've got the balls... question is, do i have the brains :twisted:

how to? do tell

[Jon325i]

Sounds like a dead solenoid to me. I did a starter change last weekend since the old one was quickly approaching death. When you twisted the key, nothing would happen for a second or two then it would either spin without engaging or it would actually start.

Changing it is a complete bitch....but it sure beats McGyver-ing the thing.

Jon

[OreoGaborio]

yeah i dunno... i'm gonna get under there & clean the contacts out before i replace it. up untill now it's been completely healthy & there were no warning signs of failure.... i'll clean it up, see if that works... if not, looks like i have yet another project to cope with :roll:

[OreoGaborio]

well, i beat the shit outta the thing like Chapel suggested, but the whore still ain't makin any noise whatsoever, nevermind starting... and now i have a bit cut on my knucke & i have no idea when that happened... whatever, it's too cold to hurt ;)

so how should i bridge the terminals myself?

guessing connect the two terminals on the bottom of this pic?

[nando]

be sure to use your toungue or some other soft, sensitive part of your body. :P

you'll want to figure out which wire is what. if you have a bentley that will give you the answer.

[DaN]

I had this problem before on my eta, parked the car at work, came out, and tried to start it, and nothing, no noise.
Took me a few minutes, but I checked the connections and one of the little wires was loose on the solenoid, plugged it in and it fired right up.

I don't think it will work if you jump the terminals on the solenoid, this will make the starter motor turn, Howevever it won't be engaged on the flywheel because thats part of the solenoid's job: to engage the gear on the flywheel, while making the connection to the motor.

[OreoGaborio]

the starter is supposed to be getting 12 volts, right?

and there's actually 4 posts on the solenoid, correct? two large, two small.... one large has two large wires going to it, the other large has nothing... one small has one small wire going to it, the other has nothing.......... right?

for some reason it's not getting a full 12 volts, but either way it doesn't matter, since i can't even jump start it

i assume it could be either the starter switch or the solenoid... or some other wiring problem, i dunno

any help?
(i love how i always have the hard problems to fix)

[OreoGaborio]

ok.... the question is why isn't the starter motor getting any power?

i went back out there AGAIN just now w/ the multi-testor... it's definitly getting juice from the battery... although it's not a full 12 volts... probably cuz the battery's not even putting out a full 12, it's putting out like 10.5-11. but the solenoid IS getting about 10v from the battery... the OTHER side, however should be getting juice when the key is turned, right??? well i'm pretty sure it isn't, but i couldn't really get a good connection though so i can't tell for sure

so.... connections are all good... the solenoid IS getting power on one side from the battery, but i'm pretty sure the solenoid isn't getting juice on the other side, which means it could be the starter switch or a relay, but it could just be the solenoid... in which case i'll have to get a new starter, since it's one unit.

it almost sounds like i know what i'm talkin about, doesn't it :roll:

[OreoGaborio]

mother fucking sunuvabitch, nothing is wrong w/ my car

i completely forgot that i have a friggin kill switch on the knee bolster down by my clutch... i musta kicked it & that's what was killing power to the starter :roll:

[AdamF 88iS]

mother fucking sunuvabitch, nothing is wrong w/ my car

i completely forgot that i have a friggin kill switch on the knee bolster down by my clutch... i musta kicked it & that's what was killing power to the starter :roll:

[DaN]

Ahhahahaha, nice :shock:

[Jarvis]

I don't think you'll ever live this down. It be mentioned every single time someone else posts about having starting problems.

[CiLK WuRM]

Arrrrrgh! Make it stop!


Must not say OUTSTANDING