Backstory: came home from work, did a crappy park job, went back out 10 min later to adjust, cranked for half a blip, then nothing. Zero. This is the first indication something is wrong. It's 10:30pm, cold out, and I have to be to work by 7am. I'm so mad right now. I can't even find my starter, I have no idea where the solenoid is, and I have no idea where the relay is. I removed the heat shield right above the exhaust manifold, only to reveal another solid shield below the pipes. I'm not Superman, I don't have x-ray vision. Bah.

I get a click or two out of the engine when I try to crank it, then nothing. Jump starting won't work, however push starting works great. Drove it up and down the street and parked it in my driveway. According to my scan tool, I'm getting voltage at the ignition. I'd love to check voltage at the starter, but I can't freaking find it. Did I mention I'm frustrated? lol. Oh the joys of ownership.

My plan is to roll start it in the morning, and hope nothing goes wrong. My thoughts are bad starter, bad solenoid, bad relay, bad battery, in no particular order. Battery is about 24 months old. Thanks for listening, I appreciate it.

 

If only you try jump starting it with another car/battery, you will not need to check the voltage at the starter, and will eliminate a few things in your suspect list. I bet it is the alternator, battery, or just poor electrical connection if someone messed with the cables.

 

The starter is behind the block, down low and a mother to get to. You'll need to be under the lifted car to access it.

 

Yea, I think I finally arrived at that conclusion too. I think the relay is mounted on or near the starter, too, but I'm not sure. I'm going to put a meter on them after work and see what's up.

 

For what its worth, in my opinion the starters on these cars rarely fail. Alternators, batteries, cables, and ignition switches - yes.

 

That's good news. I'm going to do my best before I go and pull the starter. Pretty much the last thing I want to be doing.

 

Something similar happened to me. However when driving I felt something, but shrugged it off the a bump in the road. Also smelled something faint, but yet again there was an old beater in front of me. Also parked at night, behind my truck in a single lane driveway. Went to swap vehicles and the car would not start in any way. I did not try run starting though. Turned out the be a seized alternator.

 

Would the car run with a push start? I'm assuming if it seized, the pulley didn't turn either.

 

Like I said, never tried that. No down hills and was by myself. Also did not want to risk the car ending up in the street as we had to swap sides of the road every day if parking in it.

 

Whoops, missed that the first time I read it. Thanks for the clarification.

 

Try relieving pressure by disengaging the tensioner and see if it will start. if it does, it is either the alternator or AC clutch. That is how I diagnosed it.

 

I think in my case, those things are ok, since I could push start it and drive like normal. Alternator generated 14.2 volts. I didn’t check the A/C. A buddy and I pulled the starter, which was kind of a bear, but more mental gymnastics than anything, and I’m dropping it off for testing/rebuilding tomorrow. I traced 12+ volts to the starter, got voltage to the other terminal only after turning the key. Grounds looked good as I had about 1 ohm from the other leads back to the frame in various locations. We’ll see what the service guys say tomorrow. I just ran out of time and energy to test it myself tonight.

 

 

Used that video, for sure. Thanks for the link.

 

mod mini has a ton of mini videos out there . He knows his **** on these cars

 

Starter confirmed bad. Shop that's rebuilding it for me said it was due to dust from the brushes, combined with some oil (found some leaks down there during this process, so it makes sense), which then turned into paste, which then hosed the starter. Seems weird that it would just up and die on me, but I have a very (very) dim memory of what might have been a slow start a couple of weeks ago. I thought maybe my hand just slipped off the key when I was starting it, but looking back I'm thinking this was the first, and only, sign that it was going to fail.

Now to figure out the oil leaks.

 

oh boy, i might be in this same road. The 8th happened to me.

6th i replaced my alternator. drove it that day. drove it the 9th and 10th. No problems, seeing the proper voltage.

evening of the 10th i went to the grocery store a 1/2 mile away. ran in and grabbed coffee and milk. came out car didnt want to crank.

I still had full power to everything, just no cranking. lights still dimmed in the crank position. I was able to push start it as well with the help of my wife.

i tried wiggling the clutch switch, tried the magnet trick. Resetting the ECU. wiggled the ignition switch, i still have nothing

i am fearing the starter from your story

 

Did you check power right at the starter, as well as the terminal that only gets power when key is turned to start? I had to remove the heat shields to expose that.

I put my starter back in last night. Took 15 min to get the starter in place, and 2:45 to get the rest of the parts back into place and tightened up (heat shields, wires, bolts, etc.) Wasn't working too hard, baseball was on and it was a casual work pace. Tested and works.

 

what do you mean the terminal?

and no i havent tried it yet, i just was able to research to find where the starter actually is. i am only in my driveway as well

 

I mean at the starter. Check out that video above, he walks you through exposing the starter. You have to remove the first heat shield, then push the second one out of the way to actually see the cables running to the starter. The one towards the rear of car should read 12 volts all the time. The one towards the front of the car should read 12 volts when you turn the key as if to start it. You can ground the negative lead on your voltmeter to a good ground on the engine, then put the positive on the terminals. You'll need a helper for the second test.

 

At 165k, I pulled into a Chick fil A to go inside and have lunch. When I came back out, nothing. I roll started it in the parking lot to get it home. Starter was bad. They go bad more often than most people think.

 

Finished up the job, went to start it, and it cranked with no start. So at least the starter was working. Ugh. Then I realized that the main engine relay, from the under-hood fuse area, was sitting out on the work bench. I figured 'aha' and put it back in, only to have it continue cranking with no start. Checked the codes, and got a bunch of scary looking "injector bank A/B disabled, etc." information back. At this point I'm getting super frustrated, so I start going through the process of trouble shooting. I tried to clear the codes, but only 3 of 5 would clear. Put a spark-checker on a plug, and wasn't getting any spark. This was a completely different problem than before. At this point I'm thinking it had something to do with the battery being disconnected for a week while I waited for my starter to be repaired, and the time to reinstall it. Out of desperation, I try searching for and clearing the codes again. This time they all clear, and it starts right up. Super weird.

My best guess is that trying to start the car without the main engine relay in it kicked in the immobilizer, and it just refused. Eventually, having everything plugged back in (relay in, battery hooked up) allowed the car to realize it wasn't being stolen and the immobilizer turned off. Maybe it was related to my second attempt to clear the codes, but I'm not sure about that. I didn't keep a record of the codes it pulled, since I was too frustrated and they mysteriously went away. For the record, I was using a Launch CRP123 code reader. I'm back on the road now.