Here I thought I would have some respite from the thermostat/return hose repair, but no, now the car won't start.

Symptoms:
- Dash lights come on as normal when I press START/STOP button to start engine. But nothing happens otherwise, not a sound - no cranking, no firing.
- Battery is strong. But I jump-started AND went to get a new one, installed and still no change.
- Remote battery is good (still locks and such well).
- No codes.
- Over the past two days I've only had 2 weak starts, with this morning being the weakest, but that's it. It finally gave up the ghost in our church parking lot.

What should I look for next? Looking at bullet #5 above, would a failing starter fail that quickly? Or could it be the fuel pump? Some direction and pictures would greatly appreciated! Being that my car (in the church parking lot) is 40 miles away from home makes it more challenging.

TIA!

 

If it is manual, pop the clutch. You might have a dead starter.

 

I had coolant drip down that area when my thermostat housing leaked recently (less than 2 weeks ago). Could coolant have caused the starter to stop working I wonder?

 

It is a possibility. you can try to hot wire the starter though...remove the plug and red wiring so it is isolated from the car.

 

Thank you, but not having done this before, I'd be cautious about doing this myself.

I'm getting it towed back to the house on Sunday (thank you upgraded AAA) and have a starter on standby. I drove back to the church lot yesterday and tested with my other fob, with new batteries, but no difference. I brought a neodymium magnet also, to test the clutch position sensor, but I don't know where to use it. What I see under there is not the same as some of the pictures here in the forums. Or maybe I'm just blind!

 

if the car is manual,, can you try popping the clutch? turn on the car, roll it as fast as you can, jump in the car, put 2nd gear and lift the clutch.

 

I am not saying I know what the cause is, but I have had starters go just like you describe, one or two slow starts then nothing. Can you pull the starter and have it tested?

 

UPDATE: Had AAA tow the car home. Now it's up on jackstands and I've removed the starter (battery checks out at 12.2V). I got a new starter (according to the store it fits my car) and the bracket looks different. Is there something I need to do here? Another question is that I saw on another post way back that there's a dowel sticking out of one of the mounting bracket holes (which is also on my old starter). The new starter does not have this. Do I need to try to pull this out (it seems really tight in there) and install in the new starter?


Does the shape of the shield from old (right) to new matter?


Sorry, not sure what happened to this photo, but you can see the dowel on the left side of the old starter (right).

 

I suppose your starter is dead, right?

No need to fight it or try to make it work, take it back to them with your old starter and let them do the work. Make life easy for yourself

Ebay has a handful of them and car-part.com is anither resource.

 

Yeah, ended up doing just that and went to a wreck yard and got one for $65 w/ 58k miles on it. Installed it and all I can say is... "It's ALIVEEEE!"

So it was the starter after all. It just upped and died suddenly. Brought it to the car parts store and it failed all tests.