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The starter is good, we took it back out and I tested it on the bench. The engine spins with compression using a breaker bar, and super easy with the plugs out. We bypassed the (dead) battery and hooked the jumper cables right to the battery cables and the same thing. I’m not sure what gear it’s in because the one of the shift cables is broke under the lug, but I removed the air box and moved the levers by hand now the drivers wheel spins way easier now…but with the clutch pushed in it shouldn’t matter anyway, right? I had my kid wire brush all the grounds, so I’m not sure what’s going on. I think I’ll try to jump it from the engine bay terminal tomorrow and see what happens.
Did you undo the ground at the front motor mount. If not, undo it completely, clean everything and retry.
Yes!…my son removed it and wire brushed both ends, top and bottom and where it bolts to the car…there was no difference.
I tried using the jump terminal under the hood, it did the same thing.
I hooked the jumper cable right to the starter bolt, and it did the same thing.
So, I’m thinking it might be the cheap *** jumper cables we bought because I couldn’t find my good ones. We’re going to try a different set after work and see what happens.
Is the battery new or newer? Maybe check the voltage to be sure.
Also, you said you rebuilt the starter and tested it on a bench. I recall an issue I had with a starter on another car some years ago. It worked one day and the next it did not. I pulled it and benched it and it was working fine. However, it would not work when installed. Swapped in a new one and it worked fine. It appears the old one would fail under load. Maybe this could be an issue? (I removed the starter on my R53 several times so I know what a PITA this is...)
Is the battery new or newer? Maybe check the voltage to be sure.
The battery is dead, it’s the one I put in the car (I don’t know how many years ago) when I did the R56 muffler. I’ve been trying to hold out on my kid buying a new one until I can at least get this thing to turn over, but we might have to get one.
Originally Posted by Boostmaster
Also, you said you rebuilt the starter and tested it on a bench. I recall an issue I had with a starter on another car some years ago. It worked one day and the next it did not. I pulled it and benched it and it was working fine. However, it would not work when installed. Swapped in a new one and it worked fine. It appears the old one would fail under load. Maybe this could be an issue? (I removed the starter on my R53 several times so I know what a PITA this is...)
Good Luck.
Thank you!
It’s very possible the starter could be behaving this way, I’m not ruling anything out at this point!
Take a look at the Battery thread in this section. Another member had a similar issue. Had to walk to the parts store to buy a battery. Installed it and no more issues...
Might be time to buy a battery. (IMO better than removing that starter again!)
Take a look at the Battery thread in this section. Another member had a similar issue. Had to walk to the parts store to buy a battery. Installed it and no more issues...
Might be time to buy a battery. (IMO better than removing that starter again!)
It might be...i'll check out that thread, thank you!
Whatever you get, get AGM. If you use a factory sized battery still, it’s an H5. Walmart has AGM h5 for 169. That’s less than parts places charge for medium quality flooded batteries.
Whatever you get, get AGM. If you use a factory sized battery still, it’s an H5. Walmart has AGM h5 for 169. That’s less than parts places charge for medium quality flooded batteries.
I appreciate the heads up, thank you!
When I did the battery box delete for the R56 muffler, I used an Optima Red Top mounted on it's side so the battery cables would reach without any modification. We'll probably put another one in there.
It was time to buy a battery…I got one today delivered to my work from O’Reilly that was $50 cheaper than AutoZone or Napa!
When I did this mod way back when I wasn’t thinking about the battery ever being serviced. We had to remove the whole plate that it sits on because I used steel flat head screws (for some reason) into aluminum plate…
And yea, they didn’t want to come out of course…I had to cut them off with a sawz-all.
Last edited by Turbo R53; Nov 17, 2023 at 04:58 PM.
Not much going on right now, we’ve been trying to find a decent parts car.
My son wanted to drop the oil pan to get the tip of the dipstick out…no problem. He asks me to take a look because he couldn’t get it off. I told him to unbolt the lower mount bracket that bolts to the oil pan first…after he did that he noticed that there was a bolt he didn’t see still holding the pan to the block…
So I brought the pan to work so I could clean it up in the gunk tank before bringing to Scott’s to be welded.
We got the pan back from Scott, he welded it up perfectly. I just hit that spot with a file a few times and it cleaned right up, then my kid cleaned up the whole mounting surface with some fine paper. I wasn’t able to take pics of the repair because my kid couldn’t wait to put it on…but it will be coming back off. I was at work when he put it on, he didn’t tighten or torque the bolts correctly in any kind of sequence.
So we finally found a decently priced radiator support on eBay with free shipping…
…but of course it had to arrive damaged…
I think I’ll try LKQ for a used one or maybe an aftermarket one, they will deliver it to my work and I don’t have to worry about it being damaged from shipping.
