Please Help! My car won't start...

[gube79]

Drove it to the gym last night (about 5 miles from my house), everything was fine. When it came time to leave (after about an hour or so sitting time), it didn't do a damn thing but make a clicking noise when I tried to start it.

Battery's good because every last light throughout the vehicle is working. Tried to jump it just for the hell of it and that didn't work.

I'm thinking it may be the starter, but I just put a new one in there about 5 months ago. Yall have any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks in advance...

[Sarge]

Check the starter again. You may have gotten a lemon

[CrabR]

solenoid or the relay

[Sarge]

Take a hammer and tap it on the starter a couple of times, see if it starts

[riggins44]

Still could be the battery. Chances are it's a separated cell in the battery.

With a separated cell your lights will work.

To jump start the car you will need a good set of heavy duty (heavy gauge)

cables or a good jumper box.

[Insomniac]

Still could be the battery. Chances are it's a separated cell in the battery.

With a separated cell your lights will work.

To jump start the car you will need a good set of heavy duty (heavy gauge)

cables or a good jumper box.

riggins hit it on the head. same thing has happened to me multiple times with personal and work vehicles. there's a 99% chance it's the battery.

[twa]

If the starter hasn't been dragging it is likely the battery or simply corrosion on the connection,which will allow lights but no starting.

[gube79]

- what part of the starter should i tap on? or how can i check the starter period to make sure it's not a faulty one?

- how can i check to be certain it's the solenoid or the relay?

- i'll also try some heavier duty cables because the gentleman who attempted to give me a jump didn't have much juice coming out those things...

[Larry]

It could be your battery, or you could have a bad connection somewhere on the path from the battery to the starter. (Or within the starter.)

One way to narrow it down, some: Turn on some lights (say, your headlights), and observe the lights while you attempt to crank it. If the lights stay on, then the problem isn't your battery, the problem is that your starter isn't taking much power. (Either because the starter's failed, or because one of the wires feeding power to the starter has a bad connection.)

Another clue is, do you get sparks when you attach the jumper cables? If you do, then your battery's low. (The sparks mean that the "donor" car is charging your battery. This also means that if you let the donor car run for ten minutes or so and charge your battery a bit, then you'll have more power available for another attempt.)

It takes a LOT more power to crank your car than it does to run the lights (even the headlights.) Just because the lights work doesn't mean it ISN'T the battery.

[gube79]

to get rid of battery corrosion on the connection do i clean it with something like this?:

[twa]

to get rid of battery corrosion on the connection do i clean it with something like this?:

Yeah or mix vinegar and baking soda

For now you can pour water or Coke on it

[gube79]

[

thanks Larry. no sparks from the battery, just a clicking noise when I try to turn it over. Now, when checking the starter connection, what wires should i be looking for to determine if there's a wire that has a problem feeding it power?

[SUNSTONE]

If he tried to have it jumped and it didn't work, I would think it has something to do with the starter.

[gube79]

Yeah or mix vinegar and baking soda

For now you can pour water or Coke on it

just spray/pour it on the batter connection?

[gube79]

FYI: I don't know if this matters or not but it's a '69 Lincoln. Just wondering if I should be checking anything else due to the car's age...

[Larry]

[

thanks Larry. no sparks from the battery, just a clicking noise when I try to turn it over. Now, when checking the starter connection, what wires should i be looking for to determine if there's a wire that has a problem feeding it power?

The big red one.

Your battery likely has one big black wire that just goes to the fender or some such, and one big red one that goes to the starter relay. Then another big red one will go from the starter relay to the starter motor itself. (Sometimes the relay is built into the starter motor itself, so the big red wire may just go straight there.

Things that will really help troubleshooting: A voltmeter and a (second) person who knows how to use it.

What happens to the lights when you attempt to crank it?

Question 2: Concerning the clicking noise: Do you get one click when you turn the key, and a corresponding click when you release it? Or a series of clicks, like a "chattering" noise?

[Bang]

Does the battery require water? that'll cause it to be as dead as a doornail.

But clicking .. in my experience, that usually spells solenoid or starter.

As Sarge said, if you tap on the starter and dislodge the brushes, it may crank over. If it does you need a new starter, but it will get you to the shop.

~Bang

[Larry]

just spray/pour it on the batter connection?

To clean battery connections: (Assuming it's got the old-style posts and clamps.)

Disconnect the cable, and use a wire brush on the posts themselves, and on the inside of the connectors.

You can get a wire brush designed for doing just that job.

If you decide to use any chemicals, be REALLY careful not to get any of the chemicals into the battery. (Since the purpose of the chemicals is to cancel battery acid.)

[gube79]

...Or a series of clicks, like a "chattering" noise?

this would be the correct answer. sounded like a low budget cap gun...

thanks for the other tips too.

[gube79]

Does the battery require water? that'll cause it to be as dead as a doornail.

But clicking .. in my experience, that usually spells solenoid or starter.

As Sarge said, if you tap on the starter and dislodge the brushes, it may crank over. If it does you need a new starter, but it will get you to the shop.

~Bang

thanks Bang. It doesn't require water. I'mma get on that solenoid or starter issue asap. question, what does dislodge the brushes mean?

[Bang]

thanks Bang. It doesn't require water. I'mma get on that solenoid or starter issue asap. question, what does dislodge the brushes mean?

Inside the starter are some steel brushes,, when the juice from the battery is applied, it makes the brushes spin in the casing, and the energy they generate thru the friction is what starts the car

if the brushes are going bad, they get hung up inside the case sometimes,, tapping it with a hammer will dislodge them so they can spin... have someone turn the key while you tap it.

And buy a Chilton manual. Best 20 bucks you'll ever spend,, even for a person with no experience working on cars. They are indispensable.

Any Auto parts store will have a selection of Chilton books,, if they don't have your make and model, they can order it.

They are very easy to follow books that can help you do any job on your car.

~Bang

[gube79]

thanks bang

[gube79]

thanks everybody. i'll keep you posted. consider yourselves having done your good deed for the day...

[Larry]

this would be the correct answer. sounded like a low budget cap gun...

Then here's what's happening:

The starter circuit in your car (at least, the high-current part of it) goes from the battery, through a relay (which is sometimes, and correctly, called a "solenoid", but most people try to call it a relay to distinguish it from the other solenoid.). This relay receives a small amount of power from the key switch (the "start signal", so to speak), and allows a LOT of power to flow past it to the next item in the circuit. (If it weren't for that relay, then they'd have to make the key switch big enough to take the high current, and they'd have to run that big honkin cable to the ignition switch and back.) The relay may draw a half an amp of power or so, but it will allow several hundred amps to flow to the next stage.)

(That relay is working. Power is flowing to the next stage.)

(All of the following components are physically built into the starter motor.)

When the power arrives at the starter motor itself, it flows into "the" solenoid. The solenoid shoves the starter gear towards the rear of the car, causing the starter gear to engage the teeth on the flywheel. (The solenoid may draw 20 amps. It's a big solenoid. And it's working, too.)

When the solenoid reaches the end of it's travel, it closes a switch that allows power to flow to the motor itself. (The "make it spin" part.) The motor may well draw 2-3 hundred amps.

And that's the point where things are failing. There's some reason why this circuit (battery-relay-solenoid-motor) can pull 20 amps, but it can't get 200. Instead, when it tries, the voltage falls, instead. When the voltage falls, the solenoid doesn't have enough pull to keep the gear engaged (and the switch closed). It opens.

And when it opens, and the starter motor isn't trying to pull 200 amps any more, then the circuit is once again able to deliver the smaller load. So the solenoid activates again (engaging the gear again, and once again sending power to the starter motor, which once again tries to pull more power than what's getting through, and so forth.)

The components in that starting circuit haven't died, but one of them has become too wimpy to stand up to the big demand.

Back to the "what happens to the lights when you crank it" question. (Which you haven't answered.) (BTW, when observing the lights, you need to distinguish between dim, flickering lights and lights going out. If they go out, then it means that your car is wired so that when you turn the key, it switches the lights off, and it means you can't tell what's happening. But if they get dim and flicker in time with the chattering, than that's a clue.)

If the lights stay bright, then the problem isn't your battery. The battery's got plenty of power, it just isn't getting to the starter motor. (The positive terminal on your battery likely has two wires coming off of it, one big one for the starter motor, and a smaller one that runs everything else. If the lights stay bright, then it means that the choke point is somewhere after the power splits. Other designs have only one big wire going to the starter relay, and at the relay a smaller wire is attached to the big one. But the "light test" will tell you if the fault is upstream or downstream of the split.)

(When the choke point chokes, the power upstream of the choke point will remain unaffected, but everything downstream of the choke point will see a dramatic voltage drop. You still won't be able to tell the difference between a dead battery and a bad connection between the battery and the cable, since either of those will affect everything. But if the lights stay bright than you can rule out a lot of things.)

[gube79]

thanks again Larry. actually i don't recall whether the lights flickered or not. i'll test that out ASAP. that was one helluva explanation right there. thanks man...