Hi all,

I drove home from work on a rainy day and about 3hrs later I tried to start the car. I hear a slow clicking, but no crank. Tried a few more times, and now there's no noise at all when I try to start. Dash lights come on normally and fuses (under hood and dash) are all okay.

Tried jumping with my other car, but still wouldn't turn over. Left it charging with the other car running for a few minutes, but still no crank.

I have a manual trans, so I checked the clutch interlock switch and it seems fine too.

This has never happened before... Any ideas?

 

Start with the basics. Make sure all ends of both battery cables are clean and tight.

Next, pull the small BLK/WHT wire from the starter solenoid and have someone "start" the car - clutch in and key to start - and measure the voltage of that wire. Positive to the wire, ground to the body or ground terminal of the battery.....are you getting voltage on the BLK/WHT wire?

 

Battery cables are fine. I'll test the starter solenoid voltage when I have someone to help me. Assuming that that's fine too, what should I check next?

If I'm able to bump start, in addition to getting voltage at the solenoid, would that isolate the starter as the culprit? Is it normal for a starter to go out without any warning? There have been a few times (though rarely) where my car takes a few seconds more of cranking than usual to fire up.

 

If you get "battery voltage" on the small BLK/WHT wire to the solenoid when trying to start it....you've pretty much nailed it to the starter. From there you have to decide if you want to try replacing the contacts in the solenoid or just get a replacement starter.

If you are not getting battery voltage on the wire, we'll have to start working our way up the starter circuit to see what is going on.

 

While testing for voltage on the blk/wht wire, try testing for voltage between the + battery post and the large post on the starter while someone cranks the engine. The voltage should be close to zero.

 

Turns out I get battery voltage at the solenoid when I try to start the car.

Also, I don't hear that loud click from the engine area when I try to start, so does that point to something?

UPDATE: I removed the starter and bench tested it. It seems to work fine. Starter motor extends out and spins normally.

 

I replaced the starter and all is good now.

When I had tested the old starter, I noticed that it didn't have much torque. As I was putting it back, I somehow managed to snap both the 4ga power cables between the solenoid and starter. My theory is that the cables must have been corroded and just barely hanging on with only a few strands, which contributed to how easily they snapped off. If that were the case, the starter motor would have been current limited, and thus not able to produce enough torque to start the car.

Either way, it was fixed with a new (used) starter, so something was definitely wrong with my old one even though it extended and spun "normally" when supplied battery voltage.

Thanks for all the help!!

 

Thanks for coming back to tell us the "rest of the story".