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Thread: Bad Starter??

  1. #1
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    Bad Starter??

    Had an odd problem the other day. I drove my car to and from work......about a 30 min drive each way. Once I got home I went to leave about 5 or 10 minutes later and I went to start it and it acted as if the battery was dead.......the starter didn't do so much as click. The thing is I know it wasn't my battery because my ignition turned on and my sterio and everything powered up and was working fine. I enede up leaving it and took my other car for the rest of the day. The next day I tried to start it once I got home from work for the hell of it.......and to my surprise it started right up....like nothing was wrong with it.

    Does this sound like a starter problem? I am thinking maybe the heat got to it and it needed to cool down......howerver it was only about 70 that day and i did mostly highway driving just before it happened. I am afraid to take it anywhere fearing it may leave me stranded at anytime.

    Any ideas or similar experiences?

    Thanks

  2. #2
    WTF?! BAIL!
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    I would say don't rule out the battery just yet. It doesn't take much to power the interior electrical system, but it does to start the car. When my alternator went out I could listen to the radio and everything, but the car wouldn't crank at all because the battery wasn't charged.

  3. #3
    Veteran 0rion's Avatar
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    Sounds like a loose or corroded cable to me.

  4. #4
    Single Malt rbob93's Avatar
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    Yes, sounds very much like the starter may be on the way out
    Ambient air temps don't matter much when you live attached to a fire breathing V-8
    Same as every starter I've had go out, slow to die but eventual
    If the battery is over two years old it may be suspect, but you say it cranked it over fine later, tough to call from here without a load test on it

  5. #5
    Life in the Fast lane sunsetorangess's Avatar
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    Check your wires and cable too make sure they are tight and clean. Including the starter wires. You can hook up a multi-meter too your battery and see if its bein charged with the car running or take it too a local chinazone and they will do a system check.
    Sounds like a battery.
    J
    2001 SS, Its not the car its the Driver that matters....

  6. #6
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    Thanks for the input........but I did have a problem with a bad connection a few weeks ago and I have since fixed it. The thing is that when it had a bad connection last month, i didn't even have power to unlock my doors.....the car would just be completely dead after I shut it off. But the fact that it cranked over fine the next day makes me think its not my connection. Last month I pulled both the positive and negative, cleaned them up, and put that gooey shit and spray stuff over the terminals to protect it.

    When the car is off my scanmaster reads 11-12 volts with the ignition on. When the car is idling i'm reading above 13V so I believe the battery is ok too. Maybe i will check my starter wires next. I wouldnt think they would be too bad though because I dont drive the car during the winter or even in the rain and its only got 63,000 miles on it.

  7. #7
    Member SSpdDmon's Avatar
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    Did you by any chance have a security light on the dash??? The VATS (resistor in your key) is known to be an issue on these cars well before the starter. My guess would be the connection between the key and the ignition cylinder wasn't reading the right resistance (maybe dirty?) and that's why it didn't start.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by SSpdDmon View Post
    Did you by any chance have a security light on the dash??? The VATS (resistor in your key) is known to be an issue on these cars well before the starter. My guess would be the connection between the key and the ignition cylinder wasn't reading the right resistance (maybe dirty?) and that's why it didn't start.
    I don't believe that was the case because I think I actually tried pulling the key out and sticking it back in when it didn't work........but I guess what you said could be a possibility.....something to watch out for anyways.

  9. #9
    Veteran 0rion's Avatar
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    it takes something like 4 minutes for the vats to shut the security light off once you trigger it. Next time it does it see if the security light is on.

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